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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 00083 7747
PROCEEDINGS
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Committee of publication.
ALEXANDER McKENZIE.
CHARLES C. SMITH.
EDWARD STANWOOD.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/proceedingsofrnass2v20nriass
PROCEEDINGS
assacjjusetis Historical Jfefjx
Second Series. — Vol. XX,
1906, 1907.
ipublisfjrtJ at t\)t Charge of tije ILofoeil jFmtiJ.
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
MDCCCCVII.
SSmtarrsttg press:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
.
PREFACE. 128372
This volume comprises a record of twelve meetings
of the Society, from January, 1906, to March, 1907,
both inclusive, and forms the twentieth volume of the
Second Series of the Proceedings. The late Recording
Secretary, Rev. Dr. Young, was on the Committee for
publishing the first nineteen volumes, and down to
the close of the fourth volume the chief labor in their
preparation and publication rested on him. Rev. Dr.
McKenzie has been on the Committee for all the vol-
umes. The late Clement Hugh Hill was on the Com-
mittee for the first four volumes, and rendered very useful
service. In consequence of his absence in England, and
the adoption of an additional By-Law, the undersigned
took his place in December, 1889, and became the work-
ins; member of the Committee. On the resignation of
Dr. Young as Recording Secretary, at the end of 1905,
Mr. Stanwood, his successor as Secretary, became ex-officio
a member of the Committee.
A Consolidated Index to this Series is now in prepara-
tion by Mr. D. M. Matteson, under the direction of a
special committee, Messrs. Albert B. Hart and Roger B.
Merriman, and will be published at an early day.
VI PREFACE.
This volume is especially rich in memoirs of deceased
members, each of which is accompanied by a portrait •
and there are a large number of hitherto unpublished
documents of more or less historical or biographical
interest. Among these the letters of William Duane
communicated by Mr. Ford, and the slavery documents
communicated by Mr. Hart, are especially noteworthy.
Among the original communications the papers by the
President on the unveiling of the bust of James Savage,
on the attitude of Great Britain toward the United States
during the Civil War, on the Centenary of Robert E.
Lee, and on Longfellow as an Historical Poet ; by Mr.
Stanwood on the Massachusetts Election in 1806; by
Mr. Sanborn on St. John de Crevecceur; by Mr. Thomas
L. Livermore on the Appomattox Campaign ; by Mr.
Thayer on Longfellow as a National Poet ; and by
Mr. Everett on the lack of satisfactory biographies of
the eminent men of the provincial period will also attract
notice.
For the Committee, t
CHARLES C. SMITH.
Boston, June 27, 1907.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface v
List of Illustrations xi
Officers elected April 11, 1907 xiii
Resident Members xiv
Honorary and Corresponding Members xvi
Members Deceased xviii
JANUARY MEETING, 1906.
Resignation of Rev. Dr. Young as Recording Secretary . . 1
Memorial for the Preservation of the Frigate Constitution . . 3
'Letter by Charles H. Dalton on United States Postage
Stamps 6
Paper by Edward Stanwood on The Massachusetts Election
in 1806 '12
FEBRUARY MEETING, 1906.
Tribute by the President to John C. Palfrey 22
Letter from John Bigelow relative to a Statuette of Franklin 27
Paper by Franklin B. Sanborn on St. John de Crevecoeur . 32
MARCH MEETING, 1906.
Paper by the President on the book-plate of John Adams . . 84
Paper by Thomas L. Livermore on the Appomattox Campaign 87
Paper by Charles K. Bolton on McCrady's Opinion of
General Greene .............. 112
Vlll CONTENTS.
PAGE
Memoir of Mellen Chamberlain, by Henry W. Haynes . . 119
Memoir of Theodore L} T man, by Charles Francis Adams . 147
Memoir of Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., by Charles Francis
Adams 178
ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL, 1906.
Report of the Council . 201
Report of the Treasurer 209
Report of the Auditing Committee 226
Report of the Librarian 226
Report of the Cabinet- Keeper 228
Report of the Committee on the Library and Cabinet . . . 231
Officers elected 231
Address by the President on the Unveiling of a Bust of
James Savage .... '. ......... 232
MAY MEETING, 1906.
Paper by Henry G. Pearson on the Emancipation Concert in
Music Hall, Boston, Jan. 1, 1863 247
Paper by the President on Williams's " Rise and Fall of
the Model Republic" 253
Letters of William Duane, communicated by Worthington C.
Ford 257
JUNE MEETING, 1906.
Tributes to Carl Schurz : —
By the President 395
By Charles E. Norton 402
By Moorfield Storey 403
By Bliss Perry 407
Memoir of Stephen Salisbury by Nathaniel Paine . . . 412
CONTENTS. IX
OCTOBER MEETING, 1906.
PAGE
Announcement of the deaths of Rev. Dr. Young and Rev. Dr.
Slafter 421
Tribute to Dr. Young 03- Charles C. Smith ...... 422
Tribute to Dr. Slafter by Henry W. Haynes 425
Paper by James Schouler on President Johnson's Papers . . 427
NOVEMBER MEETING, 1906.
Paper by Josiah P. Quincy on Cotton Mather and the Super-
normal in New England History 439
Paper by the President on Lord Granville and the Attitude
of Great Britain toward the United States during the Civil
War 453
Paper by Daniel H. Chamberlain on A Third Bunker's Hill
in England 474
Paper by Daniel H. Chamberlain supplementary to his paper
on The Historical Conception of the United States Gon-
' stitution and Union 477
DECEMBER MEETING, 1906.
Paper by Andrew McF. Davis on Jackson's degree of LL.D.
from Harvard College .....490
Documents relating to Slavery communicated by Albert B.
Hart 512
Paper by Thomas Minns on the Detroit Bank 521
Memoir of James Elliot Cabot by T. W. Higginson .... 526
JANUARY MEETING, 1907.
Letters of Thomas Hutchinson communicated by Grenville
H. Norcross . 535
Memoir of Charles Sumner by Moorfield Storey .... 538
CONTENTS.
FEBRUARY MEETING, 1907.
PAGE
Paper by the President on the Centenary of Robert E. Lee . 550
Paper by Daniel H. Chamberlain on the Stevens Catalogue-
Index 556
Paper by Charles H. Hart on Paul Revere's First Ride . . 560
Paper by William R. Thayer on Longfellow our National
Poet 564
Paper by Bliss Perry on Longfellow's Career and Reputation 569
Paper by the President on Longfellow as an Historical Poet 573
MARCH MEETING, 1907.
Remarks by William Everett on the Want of Biographies of
the Provincial Period 587
Memoir of Edmund F. Slafter, communicated by William
Lawrence 591
List of Donors to the Library 597
Index 601
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Bust of James Savage Frontispiece
Residence of St. John ue Crevec<eur ....... 20
Statuette of Benjamin Franklin 27
Book-Plate of John Adams ........... 84
Portrait of Mellen Chamberlain 119
Portrait of Theodore Lyman .......... 147
Portrait of Robert C. Winthrop, Jr. ....... 178
Portrait of Stephen Salisbury f e . « . . 412
Portrait of J. Elliot Cabot ...........526
Portrait of Charles Sumner . ( . . . 538
Portrait of Edmund F. Slafter . • . 591
[xi]
I
/
hi Wft OFFICERS
• n -
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
Elected April 11, 1907.
|)re5ibent.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, LL.D , . Lincoln.
$itc-|3resibenis.
SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, LL.D. . . Boston.
JAMES FORD RHODES, LL.D Boston.
JRccoibing Stoctarg.
EDWARD STANWOOD, Litt.D. ........ Brookline.
(JDorrcsponbing Smetarg.
HENRY WILLIAMSON HAYNES, A.M Boston.
treasurer.
ARTHUR LORD, A.B Plymouth.
librarian*
SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, LL.D. ........ Boston.
Cabhtet-Jleeper.
GRENVILLE ROWLAND NORCROSS, LL.B Boston.
P embers ai |Targe of \\t €ountil
THOMAS LEONARD LIVERMORE, A.M. . . . Jamaica Plain.
SAMUEL SAVAGE SHAW, LL.B Boston.
NATHANIEL PAINE, A.M Worcester.
EDWARD H. HALL, D.D Cambridge.
ROGER B. MERRIMAN, Ph.D Cambridge.
A dditional Member of the Council.
MELVILLE M. BIGELOW, LL.D Cambridge.
[xiii]
RESIDENT MEMBERS,
AT THE DATE OF THE PRINTING OF THIS BOOK, IN THE ORDER OF
THEIR ELECTION.
1860.
Hon. Samuel Abbott Green, LL.D.
Charles Eliot Norton, D.C.L.
1861.
Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D.
1865.
Josiah Phillips Quincy, A.M.
1866.
Henry Gardner Denny, A.M.
1867.
Charles Card Smith, A.M.
1871.
Abner Cheney Goodell, A.M.
Edward Doubleday Harris, Esq.
1873.
Hon. Winslow Warren, LL.B.
Charles William Eliot, LL.D.
1875.
Charles Francis Adams, LL.D.
1876.
Hon. William Everett, LL.D.
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, LL.D.
1877.
John Torrey Morse, Jr., A.B.
1878.
Gamaliel Bradford, A.B.
1879.
Henry Williamson Haynes, A.M.
1880.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
LL.D.
[xiv]
1881.
Rev. Henry Fitch Jenks, A.M.
Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D.
1882.
Arthur Lord, A.B.
Frederick Ward Putnam, A.M.
James McKellar Bugbee, Esq.
1884.
Hon. John Elliot Sanford, LL.D.
Edward Channing, Ph.D.
1886.
William Watson Goodwin, D.C.L.
Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold
Allen, D.D.
1887.
Solomon Lincoln, A.M.
Edwin Pliny Seaver, A.M.
1889.
Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D.
Thornton Kirkland Lothrop, LL.B.
1890.
Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, A.M.
Abbott Lawrence Lowell, LL.B.
1891.
Hon. Oliver Wendell Holmes, LL.D.
Henry Pickering Walcott, LL.D.
1893.
Hon. Charles Russell Codman, LL.B.
Barrett Wendell, A.B.
James Ford Rhodes, LL.D.
RESIDENT MEMBERS.
XV
1894.
Hon. Edward Francis Johnson,LL.B.
Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D.
William Roscoe Thayer, A.M.
1895.
Rev. Morton Dexter, A.M.
Hon. Thomas Jefferson Coolidge,
LL.D.
Hon. William Wallace Crapo, LL.D.
1896.
Hon. Francis Cabot Lowell, A.B.
Granville Stanley Hall, LL.D.
Alexander Agassiz, LL.D.
Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge.
1897.
Rev. Leverett Wilson Spring, D.D.
Col. William Roscoe Livermore.
Hon. Richard Olney, LL.D.
Lucien Carr, A.M.
1898.
Rev. George Angier Gordon, D.D.
John Chipman Gray, LL.D.
Rev. James De Normandie, D.D.
Andrew McFarland Davis, A.M.
1899.
Archibald Gary Coolidge, Ph.D.
John Noble, LL.D.
Charles Pickering Bowditch, A.M.
Rev. Edward Henry Hall, D.D.
1900.
James Frothingham Hunnewell,
A.M.
Melville Madison Bigelow, LL.D.
1901.
Thomas Leonard Livermore, A.M.
Nathaniel Paine, A.M.
Charles Gross, Ph.D.
John Osborne Sumner, A.B.
Arthur Theodore Lyman, A.M.
Samuel Lothrop Thorndike, A.M.
1902.
Edward Henry Strobel, LL.D.
Henry Lee Higginson, LL.D.
Brooks Adams, A.B.
Grenville Howland Norcross, LL.B.
Edward Hooker Gilbert, A.B.
1903.
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, A.B.
Charles Knowles Bolton, A.B.
Samuel Savage Shaw, LL.B.
Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D.
Waldo Lincoln, A.B.
Frederic Jesup Stimson, LL.B.
Edward Stanwood, Litt.D.
Moorfield Storey, A.M.
1904.
Thomas Minns, Esq.
Roger Bigelow Merriman, Ph.D.
Charles Henry Dalton, Esq.
Charles Homer Haskins, Ph.D.
1905.
Hon. John Davis Long, LL.D.
Don Gleason Hill, A.M.
Theodore Clarke Smith, Ph.D.
Henry Greenleaf Pearson, A.B.
Bliss Perry, L.II.D.
Hon. John Lathrop, A.M.
1906.
Edwin Doak Mead, Esq.
Edward Henry Clement, Litt.D.
William Endicott, A.M.
Lindsay Swift, A.B.
Hon. George Sheldon.
Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe, A.M.
Arnold Augustus Rand, Esq.
1907.
Jonathan Smith, A.B.
Albert Matthews, A.B.
William Vail Kellen, LL.D.
HONORARY MEMBERS.
1871.
David Masson, LL.D.
1896.
Rt. Hon. James Bryce, D.C.L.
1899.
Rt. Hon. Sir George Otto Trevelyan,
Bart., D.C.L.
1901.
Pasquale Villari, D.C.L.
1902.
Henry Charles Lea, LL.D.
1904.
Adolf Harnack, D.D.
Rt. Hon. John Morley, LL.D.
Goldwin Smith, D.C.L.
1905.
Ernest Lavisse.
1907.
Rear- Admiral Alfred Thayer
Mahan, D.C.L.
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
1875.
Hon. John Bigelow, LL.D.
Hubert Howe Bancroft, A.M.
1878.
John Austin Stevens, A.B.
Joseph Florimond Loubat, LL.D.
Charles Henry Hart, LL.B.
1879.
Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Litt.D.
John Marshall Brown, A.M.
Hon. Andrew Dickson White, LL.D.
1880.
Sir James McPherson Le Moine
Henry Adams, LL.D.
[xvi]
1883.
Rev. Charles Richmond Weld, LL.D.
1887.
John Andrew Doyle, M.A.
1896.
Hon. James Burrill Angell, LL.D.
William Babcock Weeden, A.M.
1897.
Rev. George Park Fisher, D.D.
Woodrow Wilson, LL.D.
Hon. Joseph Hodges Choate, D.C.L.
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
XV11
1898.
John Franklin Jameson, LL.D.
1899.
Rev. William Cunningham, LL.D,
1900.
Hon. Simeon Eben Baldwin, LL.D.
John Bassett Moore, LL.D.
1901.
Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D.
Frederic Harrison, M.A.
Frederic Bancroft, LL.D.
Charles Harding Firth, LL.D.
William James Ashley, M.A.
1902.
Edward Gaylord Bourne, Ph.D.
John Bach McMaster, LL.D.
Albert Venn Dicey, LL.D.
R&iben Gold Thwaites, LL.D.
John Christopher Schwab, Ph.D.
Worthington Chauncey Ford, A.M.
1903.
Rev. Arthur Blake Ellis, LL.B.
Auguste Moireau.
Hon. Horace Davis, LL.D.
1904.
Sidney Lee, Litt.D.
Frederick Jackson Turner, Ph.D.
Sir Spencer W'alpole, K.C.B.
1905.
William Archibald Dunning, LL.D.
James Schouler, LL.D.
George Parker Winship, A.M.
Gabriel Hanotaux.
Hubert Hall.
1906.
Andrew Cunningham McLaugh-
lin, A.M.
Hon. Beekman Wmthrop, LL.B.
1907.
Hon. James Phinney Baxter, Litt.D.
Wilberforce Eames, A.M.
George Walter Prothero, Litt.D.
Jean Jules Jusserand, LL.D.
MEMBERS DECEASED.
Members who have died, or of whose death information has been received, since the
last volume of Proceedings was issued, March 10, 1906, arranged in
the order of their election, and with date of death.
Resident.
Rev. Edward James Young, D.D. June 23, 1906.
Rev. Edmund Far well Slafter, D.D. .... . . Sept. 22, 1906.
Hon. Daniel Henry Chamberlain, LL.D. . . . . . . April 13, 1907.
[The Memberships of George Spring Merriam, A.M., and of Thomas Corwin Men-
denhall, LL.D., were terminated by resignation Nov. 8, 1906.]
Honorary.
Hon. Carl Schurz, LL.D. ........... May 14,1906.
Corresponding.
Gustave Vapereau . April 18, 1906.
Rev. Henry Martyn Baird, D.D . Nov: 11, 1906.
Alexander Brown, D.C.L Aug. 29, 1906.
Richard Garnett, LL.D. ........... April 13, 1906.
Frederic William Maitland, LL.D Dec. 19, 1906.
[The name of Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan, D.C.L., was transferred from the Corre-
sponding to the Honorary List Jan. 10, 1907.]
[xviii]
PROCEEDINGS
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
JANUARY MEETING, 1906.
THE stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 11th in-
stant, at three o'clock, p. m. ; the President, Charles
Francis Adams, LL.D., in the chair.
In the absence of the Recording Secretary, Mr. Henry W.
Haynes was chosen Secretary pro tempore.
The record of the December meeting was read and ap-
proved ; and the Librarian submitted the list of donors to the
Library during the month, adding that the volume of fac-
similes, etc., given by Mr. William A. Courtenay, late a Cor-
responding Member, had been returned to him at his request
and in accordance with the advice of the Council.
The President announced the resignation of the Rev.
Dr. Edward J. Young as Recording Secretary, on account of
inability to discharge the duties of the office to his own sat-
isfaction, and said : —
I am unwilling to have the resignation of Dr. Young
acted upon, and his successor chosen, without putting on
record my sense of the obligation the Society is under to
Dr. Young for long and faithful service as its Recording Sec-
retary. First chosen at the April meeting of 1883, he was
last April chosen for the twenty-third time. He has there-
fore sat at our meetings by the side of three Presidents, —
Mr. Winthrop for two years, Dr. Ellis for over nine, and the
present occupant of this chair for nearly eleven. The Society
.has, I believe, in the course of its century and fifteen years of
l
2 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
existence, enjoyed the services of some twelve or more Re-
cording Secretaries, and of these, five, Dr. James Freeman,
Dr. Charles Lowell, Joseph Willard, the late Charles Deane,
and now Dr. Young, served by successive annual elections
each for nine years or more ; but the service of Dr. Young
was longest of all, exceeding that of Secretary Willard (1835-
1857) by eleven months. For more than a decennium he and
I at these meetings have sat side by side, — he much more reg-
ular in attendance than I, for my absences have been frequent
and long continued ; but during all that period I do not recall
a single occasion when a Secretary pro tempore had to be
chosen. Dr. Young has been uniformly present, with his
record ready for submission. Unassuming, gentle, always
considerate and courteous, never aggressive, he has been to
the Society a model Recording Secretary, and his absence
from his accustomed place will be to all matter of deep regret,
and to none deeper than to me.
On motion of Mr. Barrett Wendell, seconded by Mr. Thomas
Minns, it was unanimously
Resolved, That, in accepting the resignation of the Rev.
Edward J. Young, D.D., as Recording Secretary, after more
than twenty-two years of continuous and faithful service, the
Society desires to record its grateful sense of the manner in
which he has so long fulfilled the duties of his office, and its
regret that he now feels compelled to relinquish them.
The President then said :
Having considered the matter of a successor to Mr. Young,
the Council instructs me to present the name of Mr. Edward
Stanwood. It is customary at our Annual Meetings to elect
all officers by ballot. A viva voce choice, on nomination, would
probably not be open to objection ; but, to comply with form
and custom, it has been suggested that the Secretary pro tem-
pore be instructed to cast one ballot for Recording Secretary,
that ballot bearing the name of Mr. Stanwood. This can, of
course, only be done by general consent. Should any one
present express a desire for a ballot, it will be ordered.
No member requesting a ballot, the Secretary pro tempore
cast one ballot for Edward Stanwood as Recording Secretary,
and Mr. Stanwood was declared elected.
1906.] THE FRIGATE " CONSTITUTION." 3
The President submitted a memorial to Congress relative
to the preservation of the frigate " Constitution," which had
been adopted by the Council in accordance with a vote of the
Society at its last meeting. The memorial is as follows : —
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States : —
The undersigned, the Council of the Massachusetts Historical Society,
acting under its instructions, again memorialize your Honorable Bodies
in regard to the United States frigate " Constitution," and the dispo-
sition to be made of that historic vessel.
A copy of a previous memorial on the same subject, heretofore sub-
mitted by us under similar conditions, is hereto appended, and to it we
respectfully call your attention.
In the annual report of the Secretary of the Navy recently submitted,
it is, however, stated that the vessel now lying at Charlestown is,
because of repeated renewals, not the historic " Constitution," or " the
vessel with which Hull captured the ' Guerriere,' " and that to hold her
forth as such is a case of " false pretences " ; that, if repaired and put
in cdmmission, " she would be absolutely useless " ; and, finally, that thus
to restore her would be " a perfectly unjustifiable waste of public
money." She should therefore be broken up, or, as an alternative,
knocked to pieces and sunk as something of no further practical use, —
what is designated as " a maritime end " being thus, " for purely senti-
mental reasons," conceded her.
Your Memorialists do not propose to argue these several points ; we
confine ourselves to protesting earnestly against them, and, one and all,
denying them. If the vessel now moored at the Charlestown dock is
not the historic frigate " Constitution," then the Society for which we
speak is not the Massachusetts Historical Society ; for it was organized
six years before the " Constitution " was launched, and the last survivor
of our original members died sixty-five years ago ; five times has the
Society changed its habitation ; it has hardly a thing in possession
which belonged to it in 1792 or in 1812 ; its very name has undergone
legal alteration. Yet we hold it needless to argue that, through con-
stant renewal and by unbroken succession, this Society is the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society of 1791, and it is assuredly so regarded.
We would look upon a denial of our identity as, at least, ill considered.
It is in no respect otherwise in the case of the " Constitution."
The assertion, officially made, that the present ship if rebuilt on her
old lines would, when completed, " be absolutely useless " is scarcely
less matter of surprise. Her sister frigate of exactly coeval build, the
" Constellation," has recently been repaired, and is now used as a training
ship attached to the Naval War College at Newport ; while another
similar ship, now called the " Severn," but until recently bearing the
4 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
ill-omened name of " Chesapeake," is in commission and connected with
the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Formerly the " Constitution " was
so attached to the Academy, and a distinguished admiral, still on the
active list, has recently testified to the " intense interest " she excited
in him when as a boy he for months lived aboard her. Why, then, it
is pertinent to ask, should not the single symbolic "fighting frigate" of
our earlier Navy, around which associations cluster, be restored, put in
commission and used to replace the " Constellation " or the " Severn,"
formerly the " Chesapeake," to which vessels comparatively little his-
toric interest, and, in the case of the last, less than no patriotic senti-
ments attach ? Why should they be repaired and maintained, and the
" Constitution " utilized as a " target " ?
If to repair and maintain the " Constitution " would be an " unjustifi-
able waste " of the public money of the United States, what cau be said
on behalf of the " Victory," and the outlay she entails on the British
exchequer? That Nelson's flagship, which so proudly broke the op-
posing line at Trafalgar seven years before the " Constitution " called
down the flag of the " Guerriere," should now be towed to sea and prac-
tised at as a target by modern ironclads would, as a suggestion from the
Admiralty Board, not only shock the public opinion of Great Britain
but be resented as an outrage, or at best an unseemly levity. Are
Americans less susceptible to sentiment, patriotism, and gratitude than
their cousins across the sea? To-day, a century after Nelson died in
her cockpit, the "Victory," cherished by Great Britain as one of the
most precious relics of her sea glories, is annually visited by scores of
thousands of all nations. So, as the long record of those who flock to
see her bears witness, the " Constitution" is in no less degree an inspi-
ration to Americans. They feel towards her as towards a sentient
being; for, in one short half-hour, in a time of deepest gloom, her
broadsides elevated the United States from being an unconsidered people
beyond the sea into respect as a confessed world-power. She then did
for us more than the " Victory " ever did for England.
Therefore, in the name and on behalf of the Society we represent,
we renew the prayer embodied in the accompanying Memorial of 1903.
We -ask that immediate action be taken to the end that the course pur-
sued by the British Admiralty as respects the line-of-battle ship " Vic-
tory " be pursued by the United States Navy Department in the case
of the frigate '* Constitution." Accordingly, we pray your Honorable
Bodies that the necessary steps forthwith be taken for preserving the
"Fighting Frigate" of 1812; that she be repaired and renewed, and
once more put in commission to be used as a training-ship in connection
with our Naval Academies ; and that, navigated as such by the students
of the Academies, she be made in future to visit at suitable seasons
points along our coast where she may be easily accessible to that large
1906.] LETTER FROM HON. H. C. LODGE. 5
and ever-increasing number of American citizens who, retaining a sense
of affection as well as of deep gratitude to her, feel also a patriotic and
an abiding interest in the associations she will never cease to recall.
And your Memorialists will ever pray, etc.
Charles Francis Adams, President,
Samuel A. Green, Vice-President,
James Ford Rhodes, Second Vice-President,
Edward Stan wood, Recording Secretary,
Henry W. Haynes, Corresponding Secretary,
Charles C. Smith, Treasurer,
Grenville Howland Norcross, Cabinet Keeper,
James Frothingham Hunnewell,
' James De Normandie,
Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
Albert Bushnell Hart,
Thomas Leonard Livermore,
Roger Bigelow Merriman,
Members constituting the Council of the Society.
Boston, January 11, 1906.
Mr. Edwin D. Mead was elected a Resident Member.
Mr. Charles C. Smith said he had received a letter from our
associate Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, now in Washington,
which, at his request, he communicated to the Society.
United States Senate, Dec. 28, 1905.
My dear Mr. Smith, — In the last volume of our Proceedings,
which I received day before yesterday, I have just read Mr. Sanborn's
valuable paper upon the Reverend Samuel Langdon, President of Har-
vard College. I have read it with great pleasure and interest, and it is of
especial interest to me on account of my relationship with the Langdons.
My great-grandfather on my father's maternal side was John Langdon.
Together with Henry Knox he was an apprentice with Wharton and
Bowes, booksellers, in Boston. He then set up in business for himself
in Cornhill, but at the outbreak of the War of the Revolution gave up
his business and raised a company which took part in the Rhode Island
campaign. He also served for three years in the Continental Army,
coming out with the rank of Captain. He married the daughter of
Thomas Walley and was a brother of Joanna Langdon, who was the
mother of Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham. It was this family con-
nection which led me to notice a slight error in Mr. Sanborn's account
of the Langdons. He speaks of " Nathaniel Langdon, a Boston inn-
keeper, in the first half of the eighteenth century " as " the first cousin
of Mrs. Andrew Eliot, and the second cousin of Dr. Langdon the Pres-
6 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
ideut of Harvard College." This Nathaniel Langdon was my great-
grandfather's father. He was an uncle of Mrs. Eliot and the first
cousin once removed of President Langdon of Harvard. This error is
entirely trifling, but as the statement in the Proceedings indicated that
Mr. Sanborn was intending to put his memoir in a more extended form,
which I sincerely trust he will do, I thought it possible that he might
like to make this little correction. It is, as I have said, a very great
pleasure to me that Mr. Sanborn has prepared this careful and excellent
account of Dr. Langdon, who was not only a scholar and a faithful and
devoted minister, but a thoroughly patriotic man and an ardent
Whig. Several of his kindred like my great-grandfather were in the
War of the Revolution, and the whole family seems to have been zealous
on the patriotic side. Dr. Eliot's very unjust account of him in connec-
tion with the resignation of the Presidency of the College has drifted
down the stream of local history, producing a wholly false impression
upon those who read that history in regard to a man who took charge
of the College at a great personal sacrifice and whose character and
abilities were really beyond reproach. To those who claim kinship with
him it is most gratifying to have him so thoroughly and fully vindicated
as has been done in Mr. Sanborn's paper. It was Dr. Langdon who
made the prayer before the troops when they were drawn up on Cam-
bridge Common on the evening of June 16th, just before they started on
their march to Bunker Hill. I think that Mr. Sanborn has not men-
tioned this little incident, which has always seemed to me one of the
most interesting of Dr. Langdon's life.
Sincerely yours,
H. C. Lodge.
Charles C. Smith, Esq.
Mr. Charles H. D Alton read the following letter which
he had addressed to the Hon. W. Murray Crane with regard to
the postage stamps in use by the United States government :
Boston, January 4, 1906.
Hon. W. Murray Crane, United States Senate.
Dear Sir, — In 1903 the Post Office Department retired the two-
cent stamp bearing the profile head of Washington taken from the Hou-
don statue, which had been in use for many years, and substituted the
design of a front face taken from Stuart's portrait.
The Department presumably approved of the artistic qualities of the
latter stamp and issued it to the country. It was, however, so gener-
ally criticised by the public, as giving a senile expression to a noble face,
that it was withdrawn as soon as new plates could be made.
The stamps now in use are from the second plate and are only some-
what less objectionable than those from the first one.
1906.] UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMPS. 7
When the first of these new stamps appeared, I wrote to the depart-
ment, advising that the plates be condemned and that the former ones
with the Houdon profile be used, not only for the two-cent stamps but
for all other denominations, with variations in colors and numerals, with
the single exception of the one-cent stamp, which should continue to bear
the profile head of Franklin because he was the founder of the United
States postal system.
My letter was referred to the Third Postmaster-General, having
jurisdiction in the matter, who replied at length (addressing the Post-
master-General) Saying that a new design was being made which would
be "simple, dignified, and rich" (the one now in use) and objecting to
the proposed general use of one head for the following reasons : First,
because there are so many "noted Americans who are worthy of such
recognition." Second, because dissimilarity and variety of design facili-
tate handling by postal employees, both in the selling of stamps and in
the rapid assorting, rating, and despatch of mail matter ; that the Amer-
ican method of administration requires more attention than any other
country, and furthermore that the Stuart front-face portrait was lately
substituted for the Houdon profile, because the former was best known
to the ^reat majority of people ; that the portrait was taken from life,
while the Houdon head was " ideal, not a likeness of a living being, but
of a bust."
In respect to these reasons it is submitted that the policy of using
postage stamps for honoring noted Americans as from time to time the
Third Assistant Postmaster-General may think to be desirable, is ob-
jectionable, because the official for the time being is not the proper
authority to decide as to who is most worthy of such national recogni-
tion, and the power may be easily misapplied, and, while gratifying to
some people or sections, may not be to others.
As to the second reason. It is the policy of many governments to
use but one head or design on all stamps, often that of the chief of the
country for the time being, the different denominations being indicated
by variations in color, numerals, and, when necessary, titles. This cus-
tom would not have become so general if it were found to conflict with
the highest standard of administration.
The trained eye distinguishes the various stamps by color and nu-
merals rather than by the features of the subject. The American postal
clerk is no doubt as capable as the foreigu one.
As to the statement that the United States Post Office requires more
attention than that of any other country. Since the accession of King
Edward VII. the British Post Office has issued several hundred new
stamps, all bearing his profile portrait, for use at home and in depen-
dencies, differentiated by colors, numerals, and titles. I am told that
the entire series will number considerably over one thousand. Most of
8 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
these varieties pass through the London Post Office. There are less
than twenty United States Stamps in common use.
The British Post Office also supplies stamps for internal revenue use,
conducts savings banks, the telegraph and telephone service, a parcel
post, etc. It cannot therefore be justly claimed that the United States
Postal Department is more difficult to administer than the British.
While many other countries change their postal stamps with each suc-
cessive reign, the United States should have the distinction of never
changing and of using in perpetuity, as its postal emblem, the heads of
its two most illustrious citizens. These emblems, coeval with the
foundation of the government, are equally appropriate for foreign and
domestic use, illustrating the origin and permanence of the nation.
It is to the credit of the Republic of Chili to have fixed by law that
the only design on its postage stamps shall be the head of Columbus.
In respect to the Houdon head. In 1784 the Virginia Legislature
decreed a marble statue of Washington to be placed in the Capitol in
Richmond. Jefferson and Franklin, being then in Paris, were author-
ized to select the artist. They chose Houdon.
Jefferson wrote to the Virginia delegation in Congress, " He [Hou-
don] is the first statuary of his age," and to Washington, " He comes
now for the purpose of lending the aid of his art to transmit you to pos-
terity. He is without rivalship in it, being employed in all parts of
Europe in whatever is capital."
Washington wrote to Franklin from Mount Vernon, " When it suits
M. Houdon to come hither, I will accommodate him in the best manner
I am able and shall endeavor to render his stay as agreeable as I can " ;
and to Houdon, " It will give me pleasure, Sir, to welcome you to this
seat of my retirement, and whatever I have or can procure that is neces-
sary to your purposes or convenient or agreeable to your wishes, you
must freely command, as inclination to oblige you will be among the
last things in which I shall be found deficient, either on your arrival or
during your stay " ; and to Mr. Jefferson, " I shall take great pleasure in
showing M. Houdon every civility and attention in my power during his
stay in this country " ; and to Lafayette, " I have now to thank you for
your favors of the 9th and 14th July, the first by M. Houdon, who
stayed no more than a fortnight with me, and to whom, for his trouble
and risk in crossing the seas, although I had no agency in the business,
I feel myself under personal obligations."
Jefferson wrote to Washington that he was happy to find that he
(Washington) approved of the modern dress for the statue, and that it
was also the sentiment of West, Copley, Trumbull, and Brown, then in
London.
Houdon reached Mt. Vernon October 17, 1785. He made studies of
Washington, took life masks of his face, head, and upper parts of his
1906.] UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMPS. 9
body, minute measurements of his person, and studies of the costume of
the period which Washington daily wore. He was three years in
completing his work. Lafayette pronounced the statue " a facsimile of
Washington's person."
The head is " ideal " in the sense of being a perfect reproduction of
the features of the illustrious subject while living, but not in the sense
of being a work of the imagination. As a work of art it is likely to
last for the admiration of future generations long after contemporary
canvas and paint have disappeared.
Stuart's portrait is recognized as admirable, both as a work of art
and as a truthful likeness, and is a priceless possession.
The artist himself generously acknowledged the value of Houdon's
work. In 1825, referring to the statue, he said to Mr. Longacre, that
the head was "ideal," and asked Mr. L. to recall its proportions as a
test of the correctness of his portrait, then before them. It may be
said that much of the value of a painting is due to its color, which,
when reproduced in monocolor, is lost.
The estimate with which a contemporary Congress regarded Hou-
don's work appears by its action in ordering made and presenting to
Washington the historic medal in commemoration of the siege and
evacuation of Boston by the British, March 17, 1776, which was done
in Paris, bearing a profile head of Washington modelled from Houdon's
Mt. Vernon cast. " This medal, the only one of Washington ordered
by Congress, may be considered, both in an historical and artistic point
of view, the most important of the entire Washington series." 1
The medal remained in the possession of Washington's descendants
until 1876, when it was purchased by fifty citizens of Boston and
presented to the city and is now in the Public Library.
The first official United States postal stamp was of three cents, issued
1847, bearing Washington's head from Stuart's painting. It was with-
drawn 1851, and replaced by the profile head of Houdon's statue.
Each successive official can, under existing rules, change the stamps
at his pleasure, and is tempted to do so to distinguish his administration
or to express his appreciation of his noted countrymen or for other
reasons. An official decision, as such, as to which is the best or best-
known portrait of Washington, for example, can have no especial value.
The engraver of and dealers in stamps are the persons chiefly interested
in these frequent changes.
It is respectfully suggested that Congress provide that the Post
Office Department shall use the profile head of Franklin only, on all
one cent stamps, envelopes, wrappers, etc., and the profile head of
Houdon's statue of Washington for all other denominations, differ-
entiated by colors and numerals ; that the stamps shall be without any
» 1 Medallic Portraits of Washington, p. 27 : W. S. Baker, 1885. .
2
10 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
unnecessary names, dates, or ornamentation, and of a severe simplicity
iii design.
The two-cent stamp in use three years since is a good example of
these qualities, though it might be improved by having the words
" two cents n in straight instead of in curved lines.
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
Charles H. Dalton.
The authority for statements in respect to the Washington
correspondence and the Houdon statue is a pamphlet entitled
" Washington : His Person as represented by the Artists, the
Houdon Statue, its History and Value," by Sherwin McRea,
1873, published by order of the Virginia Senate, a copy of
which is in the Public Library.
Memoranda
Of the various issues of United States postage stamps from
1847 to 1904, not including newspaper and periodical stamps,
stamped envelopes, post cards or pictorial stamps for exposi-
tions, etc., or stamps not in general use and valuable only to
collectors and dealers, nor those of changes in color only.
Contributed by Mr. F. Apthorp Foster, compiled from the
collection of his father, Mr. Francis C. Foster, of Cambridge,
— one of the most complete and valuable collections in the
country.
Issued in 1847, Washington 1, Franklin 1 .... 2
" 1851 to 1860 Various 8
" 1861 " 1869 " 13
" " 1870 " 1883 " 16
" " 1890 " 1899 " 24
" " 1902 " 1904 " 19
" " 1873 " 1879 (Departmental not now in use) . 82
Total 164
It will be observed that the three years, 1902 to 1904, have
been more prolific of new stamps than any others.
The 164 different stamps represent twenty-four subjects and
are distributed as follows : —
Washington . . 25
(averaging nearly one every 2£ years)
Franklin . . . 19
Jefferson 15
1906.] UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMPS. 11
Jackson 14
Lincoln . 14
Clay .11
Webster 11
Hamilton 9
Perry 9
Scott 8
Stanton 5
Garfield 4
Seward 4
Grant 3
Madison, Marshall, Sherman, 2 each 6
Martha Washington, Monroe, Livingston, Taylor, Har-
rison, Farragut, and McKinley, 1 each 7
Total . 164
Stuart's Portraits of Washington
" The Athenaeum portraits were ordered for Mrs. Washington. A
family tradition says they were intended by her as a gift to her eldest
grand-daughter, Elizabeth Parke Law ; but the artist, it has been
charged, wishing to retain them, resorted to the subterfuge of never
quite finishing the backgrounds, while the heads were completed in his
best manner. Stuart's explanation is given by Mr. Neagle, the artist,
in these words : —
'Mrs. Washington called often to see the General's portrait, and was
desirous to possess the painting. One day she called with her husband, and
begged to know when she might have it. The General himself never pressed
it; but on this occasion, as he and his lady were about to retire, he returned
to Mr. Stuart, and said he saw plainly of what advantage the picture was
to the painter (who had been constantly employed in copying it ; and
Stuart said he could not work so well from another) ; he therefore begged
the artist to retain the p .tinting at his pleasure.'
" Miss Stuart says that the copies made of the originals were for
Mount Vernon.
" There seems to be sufficient evidence that Stuart determined on
keeping this beautiful head, — his 4 nest-egg,' as he termed it. Mrs.
Elizabeth Bordley Gibson said that she had often heard the matter dis-
cussed at Mount Vernon, and that the President called several times at
the studio, requesting that the picture should be sent home ; but Stuart
always made the excuse that it was not finished. At last, in a ruffled
manner, the President curtly said to the artist, 'Well, Mr. Stuart, I
will not call again for this portrait; when it is finished, send it to me.'
" Stuart was disappointed in realizing the large price he expected
12 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
for these portraits. It is said that an English gentleman offered ten
thousand dollars for them soon after the sitting, which was refused ;
and, not long before the artist's death, the State of Massachusetts
wished to purchase them, offering two thousand dollars. They
remained in possession of his family until October 1831, when they
were bought from his widow for fifteen hundred dollars by the Wash-
ington Association of Boston and other subscribers, and presented to
the Boston Atheiueum. These chef-d'oeuvres have recently been trans-
ferred for more perfect security, with other paintings of the Athenaeum
Collection, to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston." — Original Portraits
of Washington by Elizabeth Bryant Johnston^ Boston, 1882, pp.
84,85.
January 5, 1906.
Mr. Charles H. Dalton,
33 Commonwealth Ave., Boston.
My dear Sir, — I have read with much interest the monograph on
postage stamps which you intend to forward to the Honorable W.
Murray Crane, Senator from Massachusetts, with a view to securing
legislation which will limit the design on all United States postage
stamps to a representation of the features of our illustrious countrymen,
Washington and Franklin.
Complying with your request that I should express my opinion on
this subject, I beg to say that, as an official of the Post Office Depart-
ment, it would not become me to call into question the practice, which
has so long prevailed at the Department, of changing the design on
our postage stamps from time to time and commemorating thereby
some of our other distinguished men ; but speaking in a personal way,
I have no hesitation in commending the idea for its unity and simplicity.
Very respectfully yours,
Geo. A. Hibbard,
Postmaster.
Mr. Edward Stanwood read the following paper : —
The Massachusetts Election in 1806.
Every free country in the early days of self-government
passes through a period when political chicanery and electoral
fraud are practised shamelessly, and if successful are tolerated
and go unpunished. We need only refer to the parliamentary
soandals in England during the early part of the last century,
the enormous and successful frauds in the United States at a
later period, and what we now see going on in Cuba, to
illustrate the general truth. Massachusetts has not been free
from the reproach. Perhaps no better indication of the state
1906.] THE MASSACHUSETTS ELECTION IN 1806. 13
of political morality in the Commonwealth a century ago can
be discovered than is afforded by the State election in 1806.
At the annual election in April, 1805, Caleb Strong was
chosen governor and Edward H. Robbins lieutenant-governor.
They were Federalists. A clear majority of votes was then
and for a long time afterward required to effect an election.
Strong's majority was about 4,000. But Jefferson was Presi-
dent, and the Federalist majority in the State had already
suffered an important diminution. The manipulation of the
national offices and the desire to be on the winning side had
the usual effect. Early in the spring the Democrats — or
Republicans, as they were indifferently called — made loud
boasts that they would win the election. At the March
town meeting in Boston, which was vigorously contested, the
Federalists were successful by nearly two to one, — not far
from the ordinary proportion. But it is clear from the expres-
sions used by the " Columbian Centinel " and particularly from
the free use of italics and capitals by that paper, that the
Federalists were really alarmed.
At a " large and respectable meeting of Federalists from
different parts of the Commonwealth," Governor Strong and
Lieutenant-Governor Robbins were nominated for re-election.
The Democrats nominated James Sullivan for governor and
William Heath for lieutenant-governor. General Heath had
been the anti-Federal candidate for the position many years,
Sullivan for two or three years past. The campaign was a
hot one. The two parties hurled charges at each other, and
the same were thrown back with scorn and vituperation.
The accused persons frequently denounced their accusers by
name as unprincipled liars. Yet not all the accusations were
denied. The " Independent Chronicle," the Democratic news-
paper of Boston, made it a matter of political complaint against
Governor Strong that in his last Thanksgiving proclamation
he omitted from the list of causes of thankfulness to Almighty
God " the great interposition of Heaven in our behalf, in the re-
lease of our brethren from slavery in Tripoli." The " Centinel"
admitted that the fact was as stated, but justified the governor
on the ground that the treaty with the ex- Bashaw of Tripoli,
which secured the release of the Americans who were stranded
on the shore of that country and made prisoners of war, was
" precipitate, impolitic, and disgraceful." Indeed the Federal-
14 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
ists in Washington had made a party question of the ratifica-
tion of the treaty, which they strongly opposed.
Again, it was urged against Strong that on the arrival of
General Gage, in Boston, early in 1774, he had been one
of the signers of an address of welcome to the new governor.
This also was admitted to be true. The address was prepared
before it was known what manner of man the new governor
was. But the crushing reply was made that when General
Gage, in accordance with the provisions of the Boston Port
Bill, removed the capital of Massachusetts to Salem, another
address was presented to him there, and among the signers of
that address were a dozen or more of those who in 1806 were
leading Democrats of Salem.
The election took place on the 7th of April. At first it
seemed certain that the Federalists had elected Strong; but
owing to the tendency — a tendency, it may be remarked,
which continues to this day — on the part of many voters to
neglect to cast a vote for minor officers, there was a doubt if
Robbins had been re-elected, and a hope or a fear, according
to one's partisan preferences, that Heath had been chosen
lieutenant-governor. Returns came in slowly. It was two or
three weeks before the returns from Massachusetts proper
were nearly all received, and still longer before all the towns
in the District of Maine reported. When at last the vote of
old Massachusetts was complete, it appeared that the majority
for Strong in that part of the State was 4,223 as compared
with a Federalist majority of 3,863 in 1805. But the majorities
in the Maine towns were steadily eating away this majority,
and the " Centinel" in its issue of April 30 exclaimed petu-
lantly, "The question now is, Shall the Squatters of Maine
impose a governor on Massachusetts?"
The " Chronicle " promptly accused the " Centinel" of hav-
ing sneered at the people of Maine, as a whole, as "squatters,"
but the "Centinel" made an ineffective disclaimer to the
effect that it referred to those only who had recently come
into the State and had not imbibed the principles of Massa-
chusetts — by which, of course, it meant that they had not
been members of the community long enough to become
Federalists.
The " Centinel's " final figures, based on the official returns,
were:
1906.] THE MASSACHUSETTS ELECTION IN 1806. 15
Whole number of votes for governor 75,313
Necessary for a choice 37,657
Caleb Strong 37,833
James Sullivan . 37,220
Scattering 260
The majority claimed (176) was not great, but was suffi-
cient if these figures could stand. It was admitted that
Heath was elected lieutenant-governor. The Senate was
elected at the same time as the governor, but the House
of Representatives was not. The Maine Senators were most of
them Democrats, and the count for the whole State stood
Democrats 20, Federalists 19, and one vacancy in the county
of York. The other York senators were Democrats, but one
of the candidates of that party failed of a majority. The
vacancy was to be filled by joint vote of the General Court.
Early in the interval between the election and the ascertain-
ment of the result there were dark whisperings and some open
assertions that the Democrats would have the governorship.
"You can't tell who will be governor until after election," was
a common saying of the time, the point of which was in the
custom of calling the day of the installation of the governor
" Election Day." 1
The Democratic newspapers began to urge those of their
party in all the towns to send representatives to Boston.
The constitution of the House of Representatives was very
different then from what it is now. Every town having
150 ratable polls, and all towns of whatever population
incorporated before the formation of the Constitution in
1780, were entitled to send one representative each, and an
additional member for each 225 additional polls. Inasmuch
as the towns paid their representatives in the early days, it
had become the habit of the poorer towns to refuse to elect a
member in years when there was no question impending of
interest to them. Now there was an urgent call by the
1 To this period also belongs an event which is memorable in the annals of
this Society. James Sullivan was the first president of the Society and acted in
that capacity from its foundation in 1791 until 1806. But so strong was partisan
feeling at that time that his deposition from the position was resolved upon by
the Federalists, and at the annual election in April Christopher Gore was chosen
president. According to Sullivan's.biographer, Thomas C. Amory, there were but
nine members present, " one of whom was afterward expelled." The " Centinel,"
in a two-line paragraph, states that Mr. Gore was unanimously elected.
16 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
leaders of each party upon all the towns to send members to
Boston. The Democrats were first in the field and profited
most by the unusual activity. Boston chose 27 members, all
on one ticket, and there was no opposition to the Federalists.
The full House, as it was constituted that year, numbered 481,
and when the body met for organization Perez Morton, Dem-
ocrat, was chosen Speaker by 257 votes to 204 for Harrison
Gray Otis, Federalist, the Speaker in 1805. In the Senate
one member was absent and there was a tie between Timothy
Bigelow, the President in 1805, Federalist, and John Bacon,
Democrat, each of whom had 19 votes. The deadlock was
not broken until the legislature had chosen a Democrat to fill
the York vacancy, when Mr. Bacon was elected, and there-
after throughout the session every party question was decided
by 20 to 19, in favor of the Jeffersonians.
In accordance with custom the votes for governor and
lieutenant-governor were referred to a joint committee to be
canvassed. Contrary to custom, the committee was constituted
of five Democrats and two Federalists. On the 5th of June
an extraordinary report was submitted to the Senate. The
committee proposed, as was customary, to throw out the votes
of several towns whose returns were not sealed or not duly
certified, or otherwise technically informal. But further than
that it dealt in a remarkable way with the returns of some
other towns. There were two returns from Troy, — now Fall
River. One of them, purporting to be signed by the select-
men and town clerk, returned all the votes of the town, 50 in
number, for Strong. The other signed by other persons rep-
resenting themselves as town clerk and selectmen, returned
all the votes, numbering about 60, for Sullivan. No explana-
tion of this remarkable circumstance is given, and it would
probably not be easy to ascertain the truth. But it may be
conjectured that at the March town meeting rival lists of town
officers were voted, that each party claimed the election, that
there were rival elections in April, and that all the Federalists
voted at one and all the Democrats at the other. However
that may be, it needs no other evidence than the returns them-
selves to prove that neither of the two returns could be a true
statement of the proper vote of Troy. The Federalists on the
legislative committee urged that an inquiry should be made as
to who were the town officers of Troy, but this was refused,
1906.] THE MASSACHUSETTS ELECTION IN 1806. 17
and without any evidence at all the committee by a party vote
decided that the Democratic return was the true return of
Troy.
The case of New Bedford was still more singular than that
of Tro}\ The actual majority for Strong in the town was 266.
The town clerk, after having made up his return, duly signed
by himself and the selectmen, and sent to Boston, recollected
that he had made a clerical error. He had entered the Demo-
cratic votes as having been given for James Sullings. He
therefore made another return certifying to the same number
of votes for the several candidates as in the original return,
but correcting the wrongly spelled name, procured the signa-
tures of the selectmen, and forwarded that also to Boston.
The committee professed to be unable to decide which was the
correct return, and threw them both out.
In the returns of two towns the name of Governor Strong
was misspelled. The name of Sullivan was misspelled in the
returns of thirty-one towns. The ingenuity of the committee
was equal to making these errors advantageous to the Demo-
cratic cause. They adopted the arbitrary rule that where the
spelling conformed to the sound of the name the votes should
stand, but not otherwise. Consequently they rejected the
votes for Strong in returns wherein the name was spelled in
the one case Srong and in the other Stoon or Stron, rejected
Sullivan votes in two towns in which the name was spelled
Sulvan, and retained all votes for Sullivan which were
returned for Sulivan, or Sullivon, or any other incorrect form.
Having dealt thus with the returns, they made the account
stand as follows:
Whole number of votes 73,410
Necessary for choice 36,706
Caleb Strong 36,692
James Sullivan 36,031
James Sulvan 357
Scattering 330
Strong thus was made to lack fourteen votes of an election.
The committee reported that there was no choice for gov-
ernor, but that Heath was elected lieutenant-governor by 976
majority, in a total of 71,807.
When the report was taken up in the Senate, the Federalists
3
18 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
made the most strenuous efforts to procure a reversal of the
decisions of the committee. Any change whatever would give
the election to Strong: rejection of the Troy returns, accept-
ance of either New Bedford return, or any departure from the
singular rule of the committee with respect to names mis-
spelled by careless town clerks. Much was made by them of
the absurdity of entering the name of James Sulvan as one of
the four " constitutional candidates " from whom the General
Court was to choose a governor. Every one knew that there
was no such person. But the Democratic Senators stood firm.
Not one of them failed to stand by the report, and every
proposition to amend it was rejected by a vote of 20 to 19.
After several days of debate it was accepted and sent to the
House of Representatives.
The only reason that was given for the decision of the com-
mittee was that the Federalist committee of the previous year
had set the example by counting as scattering votes where the
name of the candidate was misspelled by the town clerk. The
Federalists thought it made a great difference whether that
rule was adopted in a case where the result was not affected,
or in this case where the result of the popular vote was to
be nullified and the election thrown into the General Court.
That is a nice question which we are not called upon to decide.
In the lower branch the effort to amend was renewed. A
very small number of Democrats broke away from their asso-
ciates and voted against the barefaced attempt to purloin the
election. Nevertheless there was in each case a sufficient ma-
jority against amendments.
A passage in the newspaper report of the debate in the
House indicates that in the parliamentary procedure a cen-
tury ago a motion now obsolete was in use. Mr. King, of
Bath, " moved that the debate subside," and — so it is re-
ported — " the motion to subside prevailed."
But public opinion outside the State House was rising, and
members began to feel the effect of it. There were many
self-respecting Democrats who were opposed to the dishonor-
able political trick that had been plotted. Accordingly, when
the Federalists discovered a return which should have been
rejected according to the rules of the committee, and which,
being rejected, would leave Strong a majority, they welcomed
the chance to retreat from an untenable position. The re-
1906.] THE MASSACHUSETTS ELECTION IN 1806. 19
turn of Lincolnville, in the Maine county of Hancock, did not
specify the day on which the votes for governor were given.
It was also showed that the return of Cambridge was not
sealed in open town meeting. A motion to reject these re-
turns was carried unanimously, the whole matter was recom-
mitted, and the state of the vote afterward reported thus : —
Whole number of votes . 72,784
Necessary for a choice . . „ 36,393
Caleb Strong 36,433
Caleb Strong's majority by this statement was 40, and he
was declared to be elected. He was installed in office, but
had a rather unhappy year of it, with a council and both
branches of the legislature violently against him.
During the entire contest Sullivan does not appear to have
taken any part in the matter. Amory intimates, but gives
no authority for his supposition, that he was opposed to the
attempt to count him in, and that the weakening of the Demo-
crats was due to his disinclination to take an office to which
another had really been chosen. This may well be so. But
Amory is rather disingenuous in leaving his readers to sup-
pose that the Democrats took the initiative in securing the
rejection of the Lincolnville and Cambridge votes, which
brought about the declaration that Strong was elected. That
was the work of the Federalists, and the Democrats merely
acquiesced.
It is not the least singular feature of this election, although
it has nothing to do with the legislative contest here nar-
rated, that General Heath, who had been the Democratic can-
didate for lieutenant-governor for several years, and had not
objected to his own candidacy, declined the election, and the
office remained vacant during the year. In his letter declin-
ing the office and giving his reasons therefor, he spoke of his
long public service, and of the dark days of the country which
he had witnessed. " I now see her," he said, " under a wise
and patriotic administration of the general government." " We
ask," snorted the " Centinel," " does he mean to insinuate that
he has not before seen her under a wise and patriotic
administration?"
Such were some of the amenities of politics in the good old
times under Thomas Jefferson.
20 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Jan.
The President said that Mrs. William B. Rogers, a daughter
of the late Hon. James Savage, had, as the result of a cor-
respondence carried on during the last six months, given an
order for a marble bust of her father, a replica of that in the
possession of the Provident Institution for Savings, of which
he was one of the principal founders, and that it would be
put in place in the Dowse Library before the Annual Meeting.
The President added that this action on the part of Mrs.
Rogers was to him, personally, peculiarly gratifying. Mr.
Savage had been President of the Society from 1841 to 1855,
and Mr. Winthrop from 1855 to 1885. It was obviously
proper, for reasons unnecessary to dwell upon at this time, that
busts of the two should occupy corresponding positions of
prominence in the room in which the Society held its meet-
ings. He had so represented to Mrs. Rogers, and she had
most graciously acceded to the suggestion. It afforded him
much satisfaction to be able to make the announcement.
Mr. Franklin B. Sanborn presented a photograph of the
farmhouse and grounds of St. John de Crevecoeur, the "Amer-
ican Farmer," near Cornwall, on the Hudson, from an aqua-
relle by himself drawn about 1778. He then read portions
of a letter lately written to Mr. S. O. Todd, of St. Johns-
bury, by Madame de Crevecoeur, widow of the "American
Farmer's " biographer, speaking of his extant and lost papers,
as follows : —
M. de Crevecoeur (Robert St. John, the biographer of the
" American Farmer ") was very proud of the American record of his
family, and he would have been much pleased at the renewal of the
popularity of his ancestor, whose sortie from forgetfulness he had
helped forward. His dearest wish was to see his book appreciated in
America.
I much desire that my eldest son should decide himself to visit the
United States, taking with him the documents that will interest you.
Unfortunately the manuscripts of the works published by the ''Amer-
ican Farmer " no longer exist ; they were lost during the French Revo-
lution. I never heard my husband speak of the designing of the State
seal of Vermont. All the letters in our possession written in English
have been translated or read, and I have quite complete notes of their
contents. Dr. Turner, who gave us the pleasure of his company to
dinner a few days since, brought us a letter, from Mr. Sanborn, asking
information about the map drawn by St. John de Crevecoeur (1757-8)
and presented to King Louis XVI. It is in the archives of national
IB*?- *
RESIDENCE OF HECTOR ST. JOHN DE CREVECOEUR
1906.J REMARKS BY MEMBERS. 21
maps in the War Department (General Staff). My son will attend to
it, and will try to have a copy made.
Permit me to add to this letter a photograph of the Pine Hill Farm,
made by one of my sons from the painting made by the Farmer, with
this inscription : " Plantation of Pine Hill, the first tree of which was
cut down a. d. 1779. County of Orange, Colony of New York."
Marie de Crevecceur.
120 Rue de Longchamp, Paris, Dec. 25.
Incidental remarks were made during the meeting by Messrs.
Samuel A. Green, Thomas W. Higginson, and Albert B.
Hart.
22 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
FEBRUARY MEETING, 1906.
The stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 8th instant,
at three o'clock, P. M. ; the President in the chair. The record
of the last meeting was read and approved ; and the customary
reports from the Librarian, the Cabinet-Keeper, and the Cor-
responding Secretary were presented.
Mr. Edward Henry Clement was chosen a Resident Member.
Mr. Nathaniel Paine was appointed to write the memoir of
the late Stephen Salisbury for publication in the Proceedings.
The President then read the following paper :
The Society will remember that at our December meeting
a letter of resignation of membership was submitted from our
associate John Carver Palfrey. The fact that General Palfrey
was then suffering from a fatal disease was by me at least un-
suspected, and his letter of resignation was a cause of surprise
as well as regret. It now, however, appears that it was sent
to us in certain anticipation of an event not long to be de-
ferred. General Palfrey died at his house in this city, shortly
before sunrise of Monday, January 29.
This Society does not usually include in its Proceedings
memoirs of those who, having been members, have resigned
their membership. They were omitted in the noticeable cases
of George Bancroft and of General Palfrey's father, John
Gorham Palfrey. Essentially the historian of New England, no
memoir of Dr. Palfrey, so far as I am aware, has ever been pre-
pared, yet of him a memoir is now greatly needed. It had been
my hope that General Palfrey would prepare it, and that it
might yet be published in our Proceedings ; for Dr. Palfrey was
a man of high character and of the loftiest moral standards,
and the absence of anything which can be described as an
authorized or detailed biography is in his case much to be
regretted ; nor is the deficiency likely now ever to be made
good. For more than twenty-five years a member of the So-
ciety, his first resignation was due to that supersensitiveness
1906.] TRIBUTE TO JOHN C. PALFREY. 23
on his part, or perhaps it might be better described as over-
conscientiousness, which more than once stood in the path of
his success in life. At one period, it will be remembered, he
was Secretary of the Commonwealth. As such, he became
satisfied that a large portion of the so-called Hutchinson
Papers, then in the possession of the Society, were in reality
the property of the Commonwealth. They had been borrowed
from the archives in the old State House by Governor Thomas
Hutchinson, for use in preparing his History of Massachusetts.
When Hutchinson's house was ransacked and wrecked by the
mob, August, 1765, these papers, in common with all his other
collections, were, as is well known, wantonly destroyed or
scattered. Many of them, picked up in the streets, fell fortu-
nately into the possession of Rev. John Eliot, one of the
original members of our Society. By him they were long
afterward given to us, and some of them are still in our
possession. Dr. Palfrey felt it his duty to reclaim these papers
on behalf of the Commonwealth. Naturally, some of those
interested in the Society were unwilling to part with what
had so long been an undisputed possession of the most pre-
cious character, and Dr. Palfrey considered that an issue
between himself and the Society had thus been created. In
his superconscientious estimation a proper spirit of self-respect
exacted that he should not be on both sides of a controversy.
He therefore resigned from our Society. This was in 1838 ;
subsequently, in 1842, he was re-elected, only again to resign
in April, 1854. Political controversy was then rife, and in the
contentions of that period Dr. Palfrey was conspicuously iden-
tified with what in this Society as then constituted was dis-
tinctly the unpopular side. Again the sensitiveness of the
wellnigh morbidly conscientious man asserted itself; and the
coming historian par excellence of New England withdrew
from his membership in the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Hence no memoir of him enriches our Proceedings.
Recurring to his second son, just dead, our late associate was
chosen into the Society at the December meeting of 1902.
His brother, General Francis Winthrop Palfrey, it will be
remembered, had been a member from 1873 until his death,
in December, 1889. A memoir of him is included in our
Proceedings.
Personally, General Palfrey was one of my oldest friends.
24 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
In fact, I cannot remember a time when I did not know him,
and know him familiarly. My earliest recollections of him are
thus of more than sixty years ago ; and from boyhood to the
time of his death, at more than the allotted age of man, his
characteristics underwent no considerable change. From
early youth, all through maturity to a ripe age, they were
essentially of the sterling type. Like his father, he was severely
conscientious. His sense of duty and obligation was pro-
nounced, and a law unto him. What he deemed right, that
he did ; nor could anything deflect him from what he saw as
the straight line of conduct. To him might very fairly be ap-
plied Charles Lamb's words descriptive of one of those Inner
Temple characters whom he, as Elia, immortalized : " He was
a man of an incorrigible and losing honesty. A good fellow
withal, and ' would strike.' '' Unpretentious, shy, perhaps un-
duly conscious of self and of his own limitations, he moved
through life with a sort of military precision. Not a born
soldier, nor originally designed for the soldier calling, as a
Boston boy, the son of his father, he went, in due course and
at the prescribed age, to the public Latin School. Entering
that school in 1844, when it found its local habitation in that
markedly dreary building, with its formal granite front, on
Bedford Street, he was there five years ; and to him as to my
elder brother, his classmate, five very disagreeable years those
were. He was sent up to take examination for admission to
Harvard in 1849, and was graduated in the Class of '53, — the
class of President Eliot, — a class which, first and last, has
furnished seven members to this Society. While in his senior
year, Lorenzo Sabine, the member of Congress from the Mid-
dlesex District, had the gift of an appointment to West Point.
He nominated to it Dr. Palfrey's son, Dr. Palfrey having rep-
resented the district in the Thirtieth Congress ; and after
some deliberation the appointment was accepted. Even then,
however, it was not the intention of J. C. Palfrey to adopt the
army as a life profession. Having a natural aptitude for
mathematics, — what might be described as an orderly, arith-
metical mind, — his purpose rather was to obtain the best
possible training as an engineer, and thereafter to devote
himself to that as a civil calling.
The cadets of West Point are generally young men, in many
cases having but very imperfect preparation for academic life ;
1906.]
TRIBUTE TO JOHN C. PALFREY. 25
nor has it been usual for those who have graduated after a full
course at Harvard to enter the Academy. Young Palfrey
therefore went to West Point exceptionally well prepared,
especially in mathematics, and at an age more advanced than
was usual. It is a somewhat humorous fact, and curiously
illustrative of what may be called the "outs" of the examination
test, that, though the entrance requirements for West Point are
of a most elementary character, it was for a time very ques-
tionable whether Palfrey would succeed in passing them. He
had got too far beyond that sort of thing. Nevertheless, he
did scrape into the Academy ; and, once there, with his ad-
mirable preparation and studious and regular temperament,
he soon established himself at the head of his class, and there
remained until, first in rank, he left the Academy to become
an officer of the corps of Topographical Engineers. This was
in 1857. His subsequent military history is to be found in the
Biographical Register of West Point Officers and Graduates
(Vol. II. p. 447). Immediately upon graduation he was
appointed to duty as assistant in the work of repairs and con-
struction then in progress on the various fortifications along
the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, and so served until
the breaking out of the War of Secession in 1861. Subse-
quently he was assigned to engineer duty in the Department
of the Gulf, and was stationed at Ship Island while the expe-
dition under General Butler was organized. He then took
part in the capture of New Orleans. He was in charge of the
construction and repair of the fortifications about New Orleans,
and of the fieldworks of the Department of the Gulf, until he
took the field in the Red River campaign as Assistant Engi-
neer of the Military Division of West Mississippi. He directed
the engineering work at the siege and capture of Forts Gaines
and Morgan, and of Mobile. He was brevetted Major in
August, 1864, and in 1865 was made Lieutenant-Colonel of
Volunteers. Finally, he closed his active services as Brevet-
Colonel and Brigadier-General of the United States Army. He
obtained leave of absence in October, 1865, and his resignation
from the army took effect May 1, 1866. His services, cov-
ering a period of eight years, four passed in active warfare,
were valuable as well as laborious, but they were of the solid,
unassuming description characteristic of the man and of that
branch of our army organization to which his high academic
4
26 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
rank assigned him. He never sought, probably never desired,
active field service in the immediate command of large bodies of
troops, — such command as was obtained during the stirring
time that followed by many of his classmates, both Confederate
and Union, notably by Generals E. P. Alexander and Kirby
Smith, George C. Strong, Marcus A. Reno, and John S. Mar-
maduke, — names inseparably associated with brilliant opera-
tions in the Civil War. None the less Palfrey did his duty
effectively in the positions assigned him.
Returning to civil life in the spring of 1866, he became agent
of the Merrimack Manufacturing Co., of Lowell, Mass., having
accepted that appointment the previous October, and familiar-
ized himself with its duties during the six months' leave of
absence which closed his connection with the army. He
remained at Lowell nine years, until the summer of 1874 ;
in July of that year resigning his position with the Merrimack
Manufacturing Company, he became treasurer of the Man-
chester Mills. At this time he married a daughter of the late-
Samuel R. Payson, of Boston. He was treasurer of the Man-
chester Mills for seventeen years, at the close of which, in
October, 1891, his active business life terminated.
To the end General Palfrey maintained his interest in the
military operations of the great struggle in which he had been
concerned ; and it was in this field that he did that historical
work which subsequently led to his becoming a member of
our Society. His papers related almost entirely to military
episodes in which he himself had taken a part, and concerning
which he was thoroughly informed. They were therefore of
real historical value. His writing was characteristic of the
man and his mental make-up, — straightforward, solid, to the
point, showing absolute honesty of thought and a complete
mastery of his subject. Conscientiously exact, devoid of un-
necessary ornament, he went every time to the heart of his
theme. I will more especially specify the following papers
which appeared in the publications of the Military Historical
Society of Massachusetts, or in the columns of the New York
" Nation" : — one on the Siege of Yorktown, written in 1878,
and published in the first volume of the Military Historical
Society's papers ; another, on the Siege of Port Hudson, read
to the same Society in April, 1891 ; further papers also on the
Siege of Yorktown, General McClellan's Plans after the Fall
1906.] LETTER FROM HON. JOHN BIGELOW. 27
of Yorktown, on the Capture of Mobile, and on the Assault on
Port Hudson. After the war General Palfrey was elected a
member of the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Society, and for
many years he was one of the Visiting Board of Thayer
School of Dartmouth College.
Chosen into this Society somewhat late in life, and a mem-
ber of it for only three years, though frequently seen at our
meetings, General Palfrey, I regret to say, never took an active
or prominent part in our discussions, nor does any contribu-
tion from his pen appear in our Proceedings. This is much to
be regretted. But what was our loss was the gain of the sister
Military Historical Society of Massachusetts.
Born in Boston, December 25, 1833, at the time of his death
General Palfrey was in his seventy-third year. A man, as I
have already said, of inflexible honesty, through an active life
extending over forty-five years he did his work well, and in
absolute conformity with the line of duty as he saw it ; and his
ideals of duty and of obligation were high. He leaves two
sons to perpetuate a name very distinguished in that field of
historical research more peculiarly ours.
Hon. Samuel A. Green read a letter from Hon. John
Bigelow, senior Corresponding Member of the Society, and
showed the photographs mentioned in it:
21 Gramercy Park, N. Y.,
January 16, 1906.
Dr. Samuel A. Green,
Librarian of the Mass. Historical Society.
Dear Sir, — With this note I send you two photographs
of a statuette of Franklin which was commended to my atten-
tion in a letter, of which the following is a copy, that I re-
ceived in the spring of 1904, from Madame Guerin de Vaux,
its possessor.
18 Rue Pierre Charron XVI,
Paris, the 10th March.
Dear Mr. Bigelow, — I am most happy that the photo I could
send you was found interesting, and I shall be very satisfied to see
reproduced in print an object which is for me a family heirloom.
My father, Mr. Fournier des Orvres, was indeed the great-grandson
of Fournier le Jeune, who was a great printer and possessed much knowl-
edge, born in 1712, died in 1768. My father was the last to bear his
name ; my sister Mme. de Thore and I are his direct descendants.
28 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
Fournier le Jeune was very intimate with Franklin. At the time of
my birth, there still existed letters which they had exchanged, and par-
ticularly the one which had accompanied the sending of the statue.
Unhappily they have been lost since, and I am sorry to be unable
to send you any written proof of their relations.
The name of the author is unknown.
Other reproductions of the statue possibly exist, as I know for certain
that some statues of the same kind have been sometimes made — several
in number. I know indeed two statuettes of Voltaire of the same type
and which are like each other (Mr. d'Allemagne's collection and
Musee Carnavalet in Paris). These statues are made of a white paste,
gesso or other composition ; they have been moulded and painted. The
hair of the one we possess is certainly real hair of the great Franklin,
which has been stuck ; the letter I named before mentioned it. The
connoisseur Mr. d'Allemagne declares them of German workmanship.
Regretting to be incapable to give you no better clue concerning the*
object you pursue, I remain
Yours sincerely,
GlJERIN DE VATJX.
These pictures have never been in commerce, and the only
one of them which has ever been published — that giving the
side view of Franklin — appeared for the first time, and only,
in the fifth edition of my Life of Franklin, published in April
last. You will agree with me, I think, in regarding these
photographs, taken from the only plate ever made of the origi-
nal, as not only a striking likeness of one of our most distin-
guished men, but also a work of art of no ordinary merit.
While in Paris last summer I took occasion to visit the two
statuettes of Voltaire referred to by Madame de Vaux as pos-
sibly being the work of the same sculptor. Of these I send
you also photographs, by which I think you will readily agree
with me that while the one in the Musee Carnavalet is unques-
tionably by the same artist as the Franklin, and was wrought
in the same atelier with precisely the same accessories ; the
other was wrought in a different atelier, with entirely different
accessories, and by a very inferior artist. M. Henri d'Alle-
magne, its proprietor, told me that he bought it in Germany
— I think in Hamburg — and deemed it to be probably the
work of a German, and also the work of the same artist that
wrought the Voltaire in the Musee Carnavalet. Neither
Madame de Vaux, the Directors of the Muse'e Carnavalet,
nor M. d'Allemagne had any information or offered any conjee-
1906.] LETTER FROM HON. JOHN BIGELOW. 29
tures as to the author of either of these works. This was
largely due, I presume, to the fact that neither of them knew
much if anything more about Franklin than his name.
I was not long in reaching the conclusion that Madame de
Vaux's statuette of Franklin and the Carnavalet statuette of
Voltaire were the work of Nini, an Italian, whose medallions,
as you doubtless are well aware, are among the most famous
of his period ; and that none among them are more valued by
connoisseurs and collectors than his medallions of Franklin. I
will briefly state the grounds of my faith.
Jean Baptiste Nini was a native of Urbino in Italy, and was
born in 1716, one year after the death of Louis the Fourteenth.
He died in 1786. The latter half of his life he resided in
France. When about forty years of age, he established him-
self in the humble village of Chaumont. Le Ray de Chaumont,
while Intendant of the Hotel Royal des Invalides, acquired the
seigneurie of Chaumont, on which he discovered a remarkably
fine quality of clay for artistic purposes. He also discovered
in Nini, who had already acquired reputation as an engraver
on glass, peculiar talents for utilizing that clay. He attached
Nini to him on a salary of twelve hundred francs a year,
with lodging, heat, and light. Nini began there with engrav-
ing on glass and in amusing himself in reproducing on glass
the compositions of Boucher. The remarkable plasticity of
the clay at Chaumont at length led him to turn his attention
to medallions, which he baked in a pottery established on
the estate, and which were put on the market at the moderate
price of twenty sols (cents) apiece. In 1778, as this business
with his fame extended, Nini became Director (Regisseur) of
the establishments founded at Chaumont by Le Ray, as his
patron was usually called. This position he retained until his
death.
During Franklin's entire sojourn in Paris he occupied a
house on the estate at Passy of Mre. Le Ray, Chevalier
Seigneur de Chaumont-sur-Loire et autres lieues, Conseillier
du Roy en ses Conseils, Grand Maitre Honoraire des Eaux
et Forets, Intendant de l'Hotel Royal des Invalides y dem't.
Paroisse Saint Louis — for it took all these titles to describe
him properly in his contract with Nini ; and it was through Le
Ray that Franklin, until recognized as Minister of the United
States, held what intercourse he had with the government of
30 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
France. Their relations therefore were of the most intimate
character. He necessarily fell into correspondingly intimate
relations with Nini, who appears to have found him his most
profitable model.
The most recent and the most detailed account of this eccen-
tric artist x gives the record of one hundred and nine of his
medallions, sixty of which are in the Collection of the late
Prince A. de Broglie. There are nine medallions of Franklin
alone, and five of these belong to the De Broglie collection.
None of the eminent sitters of Nini are represented by half
as many pieces as Franklin ; yet among these were Maria
Theresa of Austria ; her daughter, Marie Antoinette, Queen
of France ; three of Louis XV. ; Louis XVI. ; Due de Berry;
the Empress Catharine of Russia ; Voltaire ; Le Ray de Chau-
mont and The'rese his wife ; the Count de Caylies ; Charles III.
of Spain ; and three heads in one medallion of Nini himself,
his wife and daughter.
The resources of Nini's genius are nowhere better illustrated
than in the variety of his portraitures of Franklin. Four of
these portraits have the same features, but their dates and
legends are different. They have in some sort the air of being
official portraits of the Savant and the Statesman. Others
represent him in a more intimate and familiar guise. In one
he wears a fur cap, the reproduction of which has made his
features universally known. Another in all respects similar,
but much rarer, shows him with spectacles on his nose. This
differs from the first two in the coiffure. The fur cap is ex-
changed for a long bonnet of liberty, like those worn by the
Neapolitan fishermen.
It deserves to be remarked here that in the statuette at the
Carnavalet Museum, obviously the work of the same artist as
that of the Franklin, Voltaire's head is covered with a Liberty
Cap, showing that it was a kind of head dress which the
artist was fond of using with sitters like Voltaire and Frank-
lin, whose political principles would permit him to use it
occasionally.
The medallion of Franklin in the fur bonnet is quite the
most widespread of Nini's work. It was sent to the United
States by thousands in barrels. Some of these barrels have
1 Jean-Baptiste Nini: Sa Vie, Son CEurre, 1717-1786; A Storelli. Tours:
Imprimerie A. Mame et fils, 1896.
1906.] LETTER FROM HON. JOHN BIGELOW. 31
since his death been found at Chaumont and some at Nantes.
They had never progressed farther towards their destination.
Nini spent fourteen years of his life at Chaumont, and
they covered all the years of Franklin's official residence in
France. Nothing could have been more natural than for
Franklin to be drawn into close relations with Fournier le
Jeune, who was unquestionably the most original and the
most famous type-founder that France has ever produced, —
obeying the same laws of attraction which had bound him in
intimate relations with William Strahan, a leading printer in
England during his residence there, — and nothing more natu-
ral than that Franklin should have presented to Fournier le
Jeune the statuette which is now the priceless inheritance of
Madame de Vaux.
Franklin left Paris in 1785, the year before Nini's death.
During the previous nine years Nini made more medallions of
Franklin than of any other person, and must therefore have
come into such relations with him as could scarcely fail to
have been familiar if not intimate, and which at least dispel
any improbability of this statuette being his work ; for Nini
was a dwarf, barely four feet in height. He was original to
eccentricity ; he was fond of good cheer and dreaded the cold.
His dress was exceedingly conspicuous and was worn in a way
to give his person a most bizarre and grotesque appearance.
He cultivated nails excessively long. When once asked if they
had anything to do with his success as an artist, he drew from
a shabby armoire a psalterion — a sort of harp or zither — on
which he played delightfully with his nails. It is not surpris-
ing that a person who was in so many ways such an exception
to his species should have amused himself in leisure moments
by making these statuettes of sitters like Voltaire and Frank-
lin, who were intelligent enough to appreciate his genius and
wise enough to appear blind to his peculiarities.
If circumstantial evidence alone can ever prove anything, I
think I have said enough to settle conclusively the authorship
of this statuette and its value as a memorial of Franklin. This
presumption is strengthened by the fact that no one has sug-
gested or can suggest the name of any other artist whose
relations with Franklin or with Nini would justify even a
suspicion that either of these statuettes was his work.
Yours faithfully, John Bigelow.
32 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
Mr. Franklin B. Sanborn read parts of the following
paper :
St. John de Crevecoeur, the American Farmer (1735-1813).
Thirty-two years ago, at the February meeting of this So-
ciety in 1874, its honored President, the late R. C. Winthrop,
submitted from the Bowdoin Papers in his possession four
letters from St. John de Crevecoeur, once so well known in this
city, in New York, and all over Europe as ' ; The American
Farmer." They were sent to Governor Bowdoin in the years
1786-1788, three of them from France and the last from New
York, where he was then French consul, and were written in
English, as was the first series of the " Letters of an American
Farmer," which first appeared in London in 1782. In the
letter of October 21, 1786, St. John said : —
"A second edition of the A. F's letters, with a 3rd vol., will soon
appear, of which I shall not fail to send your Excellency an Exemplary,
to whom I expect personally to present in June next the unfeigned
Respect and consideration wherewith I have the Honor to be your
Excellency's
u Most Humble Servant."
He had previously, in a letter to Bowdoin from Caen in
Lower Normandy (his birthplace) of July 1, 1786, announced
this French edition of the " Farmer's Letters," and the fact that
a third volume was to be added. The first French edition,
varying considerably from the London edition, had appeared in
two volumes in 1784.
Now, who was this Frenchman who for so many years passed
as an American, and of whom neither Mr, Winthrop nor Pro-
fessor Barrett Wendell knew the true name, date of birth, or
his whole remarkable story? Mr. Winthrop was excusable in
this want of knowledge, since the copious biography of St.
John de Crevecceur by his great-grandson, Robert St. John de
Crevecoeur, was not published in Paris until 1883 ; but it has
long been in three of our neighboring libraries, including that
of Harvard University, and might easily have been consulted
by any historian of our American Revolution or its literature.
If so consulted, it would have corrected those errors of name
and date, extent of authorship, etc., which have been perpetu-
ated in this country for a century up to 1901.
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECOEUR. 33
Michel Guillaurae St. Jean de Crevecoeur, who at the age
of fifty found himself famous under his assumed English name
of u Hector St. John," was born at Caen, January 31, 1735, the
son of a Norman gentleman whose ancestors had fought, long
before, by the name of St. Jean, under a Rohan, and waited at
the court of Margaret of Valois, but in the eighteenth cen-
tury had settled into civil employments at Caen, and acquired
the title of De Crevecoeur from ownership of the small fief of
that name in the district of Troarn in the present Department
of Calvados. St. John's father was called, by courtesy, Marquis
de Crevecoeur, and had his country-seat at Pierpont, near
Ver, not far from the seacoast, in another part of Calvados.
He had a town house in Caen, and there his eldest son was
born and put to school at the Jesuit college on the hill
(Du Mont).
There he got hard fare and sound Latin, lodging in a cold
north room ; for he told his children that it was there, while
sleepless in the winter cold, that lie first identified the pole-
star which in later years guided him in the Canadian forests.
His uncle, Jacques de Crevecoeur, had married a lady named
Mutel, whose sister lived at Salisbury in England, and to her
he was sent, for some cause yet unknown (perhaps a school
escapade), to complete his education. Whether he returned to
Normandy before sailing for America is also unknown. There
is a tradition that he was in Lisbon after the earthquake of
1755, and he declared that he was in Canada before he was
twenty, — that is, in the earthquake year. However, his ex-
act career between the beginning of our French and Indian
war and his naturalization as a citizen of New York in 1764,
was never fully narrated, and he may have had some reason for
concealing parts of it. As a French Canadian he made explo-
rations among the savages west and southwest of Montreal,
and took part in the war against us as an officer (probably of
engineers) in a regiment under Vaudreuil and Montcalm.
He had acquired in England a knowledge of mathematics,
and apparently the skill of a land surveyor and draughtsman ;
for his first employment at Quebec was the drawing of a large
map of the French possessions. In pursuing this work he
seems to have made a long, hazardous journey west and south,
perhaps as far as to the Ohio River near West Virginia. This
may have been in 1755-1756. There is in the War Office at
34 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
Paris a manuscript map of Canada and the northern English
colonies, dated 1758, and appearing to be St. John's work.
At any rate, he was a lieutenant in 1757-1758 of the Canadian
regiment of Sarre ; and the " Gazette de France" (March 8,
1759) said : —
" Bougainville, aide of the Marquis de Montcalm in Canada, has re-
ported to the King the general situation in Canada, and has had the
honor to present a plan of the forts and a map of the places that are
the scene of war in that country. These were drawn by the Sieur de
Crevecoeur, an officer in the Sarre regiment, now employed engineer-
ing; he has made much repute by his talent and courage." 1
A doubt is thrown over the statement that the " Gazette's "
a Sieur de Crevecoeur employe dans le genie " was our St.
John, by the fact that in writing to Dr. Franklin from Caen,
September 26, 1781, the latter, newly arrived in Normandy
from England, said : —
" I am so great a stranger to the manners of this my native country,
(having quitted it very young) that I never dreamt I had any other than
the old family name of St. John, — a name as ancient as the Conquest
of England by William the Bastard. I was greatly astonished when
at my late return [August, 1781], I saw myself under the necessity of
being called by that of Crevecoeur."
In favor of the two Crevecoeurs being the same youth is the
fact that St. John, in his " Journey in Upper Pennsylvania,"
published at Paris in French in 1801, says (Vol. I. p. 337),
speaking of the so-called massacre of Fort William Henry in
1757, that he himself was present. After relating a talk he
had with a Pottawatomie chief, Kanna-Satego, in which the
Indian defended not only the killing but the eating of captured
enemies, St. John says : —
" Such ferocious savages attacked the English garrison at Fort
William Henry, who, agreeably to the capitulation of their Colonel,
1 Against this identification of our subject with the map-maker is the fact that
the latter registered himself, when assigned to the company of Rumigny in the
regiment of the Sarre, as born in the parish of St. Eustache at Paris, January
6, 1738, while our St. John was certainly born at Caen nearly three years
earlier. But dates were never St. John's forte. He misstated the ages of his
children by two years, and dedicated the French edition of his " Lettres d'un
Cultivateur Americain " to Lafayette from " Albany, 17 Mai 1781," though at
that date he was in England.
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 35
Monro, were marching to Fort Edward without arms. They scalped
a great number of these soldiers, some of whom were cut up and put
into their kettles. I have heard an officer serving under the Marquis
Montcalm relate all the details of this frightful butchery."
In a manuscript comment on this statement St. John says
this French officer was himself. How he occcupied the time
from 1758 until he turns up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about
1762, is hard to say. His biographer says he did not return to
France with the remains of the defeated Canadian army in
1760, although his name still stands on the regimental list of
the Sarre regiment during the campaigns of Montcalm in
1758-1759. There are some indications that he was in Nor-
mandy between 1760 and 1763, for his name is said to be on
the list of an agricultural society of Caen in 1763. M. Lahr, who
published the Proceedings of that Society in 1827, called St.
John one of its first members, about 1763. To this his bi-
ographer replies: " M. Lahr must have made a mistake. St.
John was then in America, hardly established as a farmer, andl
certainly not so well known as to take part, even as a corre-
spondent, in a society which included the most distinguished,
men of his native city." From the fact that he speaks of hav-
ing been early familiar with the northern parts of Vermont,
wherein afterwards three new towns, St. Johnsbury, Ver-
gennes, and Danville, were named for himself and his French
patrons, it has been conjectured that he left Canada before the
surrender of Quebec, and came into the region of Vermont and
the upper Hudson valley, whence he soon found his way to
the Quakers of Pennsylvania and Delaware. He was em-
ployed, probably as a land surveyor, at Shippensburg, near
Carlisle, and made many acquaintances in Pennsylvania. He
bought land in Sussex County, New Jersey, not far from the
border of Orange County ; but after his marriage to Mehitable
Tippet, in 1769, he established himself on a farm near Corn-
wall, New York, which was called by him " Pine Hill," and
which he often describes in his books. He occupied this farm
from 1770 to April 19, 1779 ; but he by no means confined
himself to it, nor to the larger limits of Orange and Sussex
counties. He had before this made long excursions into the
Indian wilderness ; and in the few years before the Declara-
tion of Independence he had visited Maryland, Virginia, much
of Pennsylvania as it was then inhabited, and a portion of
1128372
36 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
New England, particularly Nantucket, which he was the first
European to describe poetically. He was indeed what the
French mean by a poet, — a person who looks at life through
the medium of sensibility and fancy rather than in the dry
light of common sense. He therefore exaggerated naturally,
and without intention to deceive ; for whatever he saw he saw
clearly and whatever he felt he felt forcibly ; and this combi-
nation of clear perception and vivid feeling gave both form and
color to his descriptions.
According to Lacretelle, who roads, lately impassable from mud, now
become carriageable and easy. Sometimes after this rain there comes
an interval of quiet and warmth, called the ' Indian Summer ' ; its indi-
cations are the absence of wind, and a general smoky appearance. The
approach of winter was not ominous till now, it sets in towards the
middle of November, though often, snows and slight freezes long pre-
cede it. . . .
" Soon the northwest wind, that grand harbinger of cold, ceases to
blow ; the atmosphere thickens perceptibly, and the sky takes on a
grey color ; you feel a cold that attacks your nose and fingers. This
calm lasts a short time 5 a dull and faraway sound announces some
great change. The wind veers round to northeast ; the sunlight is
dimmed, though you may see no cloud ; a general darkness seems
coming on. Minute atoms are falling at last ; you can hardly see
them. They slowly descend, as if scarcely heavier than the air ; sure
6
42 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
sign of a heavy fall of snow. Insensibly the number and volume of
the white particles become more evident ; they fall in bigger flakes ;
a distant wind makes itself heard more and more, with a sound that
swells as it comes on. The wintry element, so long expected, now
arrives in all the pomp of Boreas, and begins to give a uniform color
to all things. The wind's force gains ; the chill and treacherous calm
changes to a tempest, which drives the clouds into the southwest with
great swiftness. This wind howls at all the doors, sounds in all the
chimneys, and whistles in sharpest tone through the bare branches of
the nearest trees.
" Sometimes a great snowfall is preceded by sleet ; this spreads a
brilliant glaze over the grouud, the trees, the buildings and fences.
What a sudden change between nightfall and morning ! The autumn
landscape has vanished ; Nature is clad in universal splendor ; a veil of
dazzling white contrasts with the clear blue sky. Muddy roads, deep
in mire, have now become icy and solid ways.
u The alarm has spread on all sides ; the master, followed by his
people, hastens to the fields of the cattle, lets down the bars, calls
them, and counts them as they pass out. Oxen and cows, taught by
experience, go to find the place where they were fed last winter ; the
young cattle follow; all plod slowly. The colts, hard , to catch in
pleasant weather, suddenly grow tamer and more docile to the strok-
ing hand. The sheep, burdened in fleeces overweighted with snow, go
forward slowly, bleating in embarrassing fear. These are the first to
get attention ; soon the horses are led to their stable, the cattle to their
stalls ; the rest, according to age, are put in the quarters assigned to
them. All are now in shelter ; no need as yet to feed them ; they must
feel the sting of hunger before they will eat the dry fodder, forgetting
the grass they have lately fed on.
" The farmer's vigilant eye has directed all this ; the good master
has provided for everything, and no accident has happened. He now
returns to the house, wading through a fall of snow that already fills the
roadway. His clothes are covered with sleet and icicles ; his face,
smitten by wind and snowflakes, is red and inflamed. His wife, de-
lighted to see him back before nightfall, greets him with a mug of
cider spiced with nutmeg. But a vague trouble annoys them. The
children had gone in the morning to a distant school ; the sun was then
shining, and no thought of snow ; they have not yet come home, —
where can they be ? The mother communicates her anxiety to her
spouse, who was already secretly uneasy. He bids one of the negroes
go to the schoolhouse with Bonny, the old, faithful mare. Tom obeys
in haste, mounts without saddle or bridle, and hurries on through snow
and wind. The children were at the door, impatiently awaiting aid
from home ; the schoolmaster had gone and left them. They recognize
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 43
Tom ' the good nigger,' with cries of joy, — all the more from the fun
of going home horseback. He sets two behind him and one in front.
Rachel, the child of a poor widow, with tears in her eyes sees her
companions provided with a horse and a slave, — a cruel mortification,
such as children know. ' Must Rachel stay here all alone ? ' she cries ;
'my mother hasn't got a horse nor a man.' 'T is the first time the
child has realized her situation, or made such a reflection. The negro,
touched by her grief, and to please his master's children, puts her on
Bonny's neck, after several efforts, and off they go."
Thus the tale goes on, showing how they reached home,
were brushed and warmed and fed, and sent off to sleep ; while
the father watches the driving storm, and the negroes smoke
their pipes and tell stories by the kitchen hearth, after piling
logs on the family fire. All this, rather too diffusely told,
shows how good an observer was St. John. His English style
reads as if it had been smoothed a little in Ireland or England,
— for his private letters are not so pleasingly written ; and his
rhetoric in French is hardly so good as in English.
By 1776, when the War of the Revolution began to threaten
the peaceful banks of the Hudson, and the hostile Indians
were stirring in the country of the Five Nations, St. John had
brought his Pine Hill farm to a good state of cultivation. I
have submitted here a small photograph of his house and fields,
the original drawn by himself, and showing a true colonial
landscape. The house, with a Dutch " stoop "in front, is of
two stories, with five front windows ; it overlooks undulating
fields, watered by a brook. At the left is a garden, showing
the sassafras tree, of whose planting he tells so pretty a story ;
on the right is a large grassy yard, around which are the farm-
buildings and a dozen negro cabins ; farther away is a large
orchard, and some fields fenced in. In the meadow sit the
farmer and his wife, under a clump of trees ; in the foreground
a negro guides a plough, on which is fixed a small wheeled
chair occupied by an infant. This was little Louis, who dimly
remembered, in his old age, this novel ride on his father's
plough, and told his grandson, Robert St. John, about it. In
the background of the sketch are wooded hills, on the high-
est of which is a rustic summer-house, surrounded by the
pines that gave the farm its name. Late in 1776 St. John's
three children were christened in this house by Pastor Tetard,
who had married their parents in 1769. Less than three years
44 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
later, his New Jersey farm having been ravaged by Indians,
and his Pine Hill farm threatened, St. John took his eldest
boy, Ally, and set out for Normandy by way of New York,
then held by a British garrison under Sir Henry Clinton.
At this time St. John had been ten years married and had
three children, all born on the Pine Hill "farm, near Cornwall,
New York. Five years after his naturalization as a citizen of
the colony of New York, he had married at West Chester
Miss Mehitable Tippet, — a family name not uncommon in that
colony then. I find in the marriage-license registers of New
York before the Revolution the following examples of this odd
name, variously spelled :
"August 11, 1759, Gilbert Tippet to marry Susannah Clover;
June 9, 1763, Philena Tippet and Ezekiel Archer; March 30, 1770,
Martha Tippet and Anthony Gleam; July 19, 1773, Darkes (Dorcas)
Tippet and Herman Rutgers; and finally, April 21, 1775, Sarah
Tippey and Samuel Zeller."
The spelling of Sarah's name probably indicates how this
French Huguenot word was pronounced. I infer it to be
Huguenot from the fact that Nicholas Tippet appears in Bos-
ton about 1690, associated with Pierre Baudouin, ancestor of
the Boston Bowdoins, a well-known French Protestant. We
have in the Crevecoeur biography the marriage certificate of
St. John ; he was married September 20, 1769, under the name
of " Michel Guillaume St. Jean de Crevecoeur, commonly
called Mr. St. John," by a French Protestant minister, Jean-
Pierre Tetard, who had been in 1764-1766 pastor of the
French church at New York City. Soon after he was pastor
of a French church in Charleston, South Carolina ; from 1769
to 1776 he was again pastor in New York, and in 1777 chap-
lain of the Fourth infantry regiment of New York State. At
some later time he was secretary and interpreter to Chancellor
Livingston. In 1771 he wrote to St. John from West Chester ;
and a few years later, after the three children were born, he
went up river to the Pine Hill farm and baptized them all.
The bride of St. John, whether of French or English or of
mingled descent, was born at Yonkers on the Hudson, and at
the time of her marriage was living in Dutchess County. She
is called by several authors " the daughter of a merchant " ;
and Nicholas Tippet, the friend of Baudouin, the Boston
1900.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 45
merchant, had the same occupation, I believe. She may have
been the granddaughter of Nicholas, since she must have been
born between 1740 and 1750. Before marrying, St. John had
drained a swamp of one thousand acres, so he wrote the mayor
of Hartford in 1783; in 1767 he made a voyage to Bermuda
and Jamaica ; and it was probably on his return that he spent
a short time in Charleston, where his friend, Pastor Tetard,
was then preaching. In 1770, as the legend reads on the
aquarelle of his farmstead, he began to clear up (def richer} his
woodlands at Pine Hill, and in the next eight years he had
brought the farm to a high state of cultivation, — not so re-
markable as the farms of his prosperous neighbor, Colonel
Woodhull, already mentioned, but so that the product of it,
with his resources as land surveyor, supported him comfort-
ably and allowed ■ him to travel considerably. Whether he
actually visited all the places which his American Letters de-
scribe, is doubtful ; he was a born journalist, and understood
the art of speaking of a place as if it were before his eyes, when
he might in fact be hundreds of miles away. He practised
several harmless but perplexing artifices. In his London edi-
tions he described himself as the son of an emigrant Calvinist
from England, living in Pennsylvania, where, no doubt, he did
live for a time before 1764, as a land surveyor, but never after-
wards, though he visited there. It is probable that his " Voy-
age dans la Haute Pennsylvanie " was never really made as
he describes it. His biographer, speaking of his first book,
says : —
" He did not wish to reveal his nationality in a work originally pub-
lished in England before the peace with America. An English clergy-
man, Samuel Ayscough of the British Museum, published a pamphlet in
1783, taking St. John to task for his ruse ; pointing out ' the pernicious
tendency of these letters in Great Britain ' (by encouraging emigration
to a hostile land) and reproaching St. John for styling himself Amer-
ican born, the son of a Scotch Puritan, although everybody knew he
was born in Normandy."
It is probable that he did spend some weeks in 1772 among
the Quakers and whale-fishers and candle-makers of Nantucket
and Martha's Vineyard, as he professes to have done. That
he was ever in Boston before 1784 is uncertain; yet if he had
seen the Kennebec valley he must have passed through Boston,
46 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
going or returning. With New York and Philadelphia he was
very familiar. As already stated, his American Farmer's
Letters were originally written in English, and in his hazard-
ous journey to England and France in 1780-1781, he carried
with him three folio volumes of his English writings, more
than half of which were never published in English, but
are now partly destroyed, and partly preserved in French
translations.
In setting forth from his Orange County farm in 1779,
St. John had first to obtain a safe-conduct from General
McDougal, the American commander above West Point, and
then a similar pass from Sir Henry Clinton at New York City,
garrisoned then and for four years longer by British forces.
His plan was to pass as a neutral or loyalist in an English ship
to England, and thence in some way to Normandy, where his
presence seems to have been desired for family reasons. Prob-
ably he had been a neutral in the conflict, as so many of his
Quaker friends were, until the French alliance of 1778 turned
him into an ardent American patriot. Although he had little
difficulty in getting into New York, where he had English
friends, he was soon arrested and imprisoned as a French
spy, and had to remain within the English lines about New
York until some time in 1780. At last lie was allowed to
set sail with his boy and his manuscripts for London. But
he was shipwrecked (as he says) on the coast of Ireland, and
passed the winter of 1780-1781 in that island. In the late
winter or early spring he passed over into England, where he
doubtless had friends, either of his youth, or such as he had
become acquainted with in his colonial wanderings. He
readily found a publisher for his first series of ''Letters," and
before they actually came out in London he had contrived to
cross over to Ostend, a neutral port, and thence found his way,
in August, 1781, to Caen and Pierpont, to revisit his aged
father, the Marquis de Crevecceur. Hardly had he got there
when he encountered on the coast of Normandy five Massa-
chusetts naval officers, who had escaped from prison in Eng-
land, captured an open boat, and sailed across the Channel to
France. They spoke no French, had little or no money, and
might easily come to grief, even in the country of our good
allies. St. John heard their story, took them to his father's
house, and afterwards to comfortable quarters in Caen, whence,
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 47
by the help of Dr. Franklin, then residing in high favor near
Paris, they were sent home to Boston and Newbury port. One
of them, Lieutenant George Little, said he had a kinsman in
Boston, Captain Gustavus Fellowes, who would undertake to
look after the wife and two children of St. John, whom he had
left in comfort at Pine Hill, but of whose condition he had
heard nothing since sailing from New York a year before.
Accordingly, St. John wrote a letter to Captain Fellowes (Sep-
tember 29, 1781) enclosing money, and asking the Boston
merchant (for such he was) to give him news of his little
family on the banks of the Hudson. Captain Fellowes attended
to the request, as will be seen ; but by a succession of acci-
dents it was more than two years before the anxious father,
landing at New York as French consul, in November, 1783,
heard the interesting story now to be related.
Gustavus Fellowes, of Boston, was the son of a Cape Ann sea-
captain, and had himself commanded and owned vessels sailing
-out of Boston. He was born in 1736, a year after St. John,
and had two brothers, Cornelius and Nathaniel, " mariner-
merchants " and afterwards coffee-planters in Cuba. During
the period of early prosperity following the depression caused
by the Boston Port Bill and the ensuing siege of Boston and
War of the Revolution, these brothers were among the wealth-
iest Boston merchants. Gustavus was married in 1768 to Sarah,
daughter of James Pierpont, who survived him until April,
1828. Both husband and wife are buried in the Davis-May
tomb on Boston Common, — their eldest daughter, Abigail,
named for a relative, Abigail Davis, having married Perrin
May (born in 1767), a rich merchant living on Washington
Street, just north of Hollis, where he died in 1844. Gustavus
Fellowes had five other daughters, Elizabeth, Sally, Sophia,
Fanny, and Hannah ; and two sons, Gustavus, Jr. (born 1774,
died 1815), and Jonathan. Of these eight children, seven
were living in November, 1783, when the French consul at
Boston, Letombe, called at the house on Washington Street,
near Harvard, to see if the two children of St. John were there.
They were, and the story of the way they happened to be
there, as related by Captain Fellowes and M. St. John, begins
with this letter of December 17, 1781, written by Fellowes
to St. John, but which had crossed the Atlantic twice before
reaching him in New York, late in 1783:
48 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
"I received yours of September 29, 1781 by the hands of the five
officers of our naval vessel, the ' Protector.' x Upon reading it with
attention, your readiness to assist thern, and the important service you
rendered them, made an impression on my mind, so deep that I at once
took all the steps needful to gain information by letter of the state of
your family in Orange County. My pains were fruitless, the war had
interrupted all communication. Seeing this, I made up my mind to
go myself to Orange County. I told my wife, who approved my plan.
' That is no more than right,' she said, ' the family of this good fellow-
countryman are perhaps in trouble and affliction. The Indians and the
British, they say, have committed many ravages in that district ; my
dear, let us do for him and his what he did for our friends on the coast
of Normandy.'
" A week after I left home I was lucky enough to meet, on the banks
of the Hudson, the sheriff of Orange County (Jesse Woodhull, Esq.),
who, as Colonel of militia, occupied with his regiment the post at Fish-
kill. Your letter, which I handed him, was the first from you he had
received since you left the British prison in New York. He asked
fifty questions about you and Ally, the state of your family, your mis-
fortunes, etc. I soon learned the death of your wife and the sad state
of your children by reason of the raid of the savages, and the scarcity
of food that followed. I thrilled with horror at the news, and instantly
determined to bring them away from that unfortunate region, carry
them to Boston, and bring them up with my own children.
" Fortunately the snow was deep and the roads well trodden. The
sheriff approved my purpose ; he said : ' You cannot render a greater
service to my old friend and good neighbor, St. John. The Indians
and the war have broken up all our schools, and the Lord knows how
we shall instruct our children.' From that moment I only busied my-
self with the means of carrying them to Boston as comfortably as pos-
sible, and particularly to clothe them warmly. Happily my wife had
provided for that before I started ; for everything was so out of order
that I could not have found, in the whole county of Orange, either
woollen stuffs or suitable flannels.
" Since they have been with us we have taken the same care of them
1 These were the escaped prisoners whom St. John had aided, the August
before, in his native Normandy. Their names may be found in the list of sailors
of the Revolution, published by the State. These facts are briefly given by R.
St. John de Crevecoeur, in his biography, of 1883, entitled ' St. John de Crevecoeur,
sa Vie et ses Ouvrages (1735-1813) avec les Portraits de Crevecoeur et de la Com-
tesse D'Houdetot. Paris, Librairie des Bibliophiles, Rue Saint-Honore, 338.'
The portraits are in profile, representing St. John in 1786, at the age of fifty-one,
and Madame d'Houdetot at the age of fifty-six. The book is out of the market,
and copies now can be had only by favor of the author's family (a widow and
children), living at 120 Rue de Longchamp, Paris.
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 49
as of our own. They are good children, and we have fortunately a boy
and girl of their ages, with whom they live on the best of terms. I
make no distinction between them, either in dress or education, except
that we often give the preference to your children, as having more need
of it, and being more unfortunate. My wife and I receive them as if they
were children we had lost and recovered ; if I were so unfortunate as
never to see or hear of you, we should treat them and educate them as
our own. Not knowing what religious principles you had given them, I
take them to church with my family, and they offer to God the same
worship that we do. If you receive this, you must tell us your wishes
on this point, — we shall conform to them with pleasure.
" Before leaving Sheriff Woodhull, who took me to his home, I in-
quired what had been the expenses of your children since the death of
their mother, and offered to put 40 guineas in his hands. He would
not take it, and said that the sale of some cattle and horses, that had
escaped the plunderers, had brought money enough to pay for their sup-
port, which, in fact, judging by the poor condition in which I found
them, could not have cost much. As to your plantation and outlands, I
advised him never to allow their sale without getting your consent. I
received the amount of your bill of exchange, and shall use it for the
good of your children. I will send you a copy of this letter by all
opportunities until I get a reply from you."
When Sir Fowell Buxton was seeking the aid of the British
Government for a philanthropic enterprise in Africa, and found
a cold reception, while his kinsmen, the Quaker Gurneys, gave
him large financial aid, he said, " I found in Downing Street
princes who were stingy merchants, but in London City I
found merchants who were princes." The combination in Mr.
Fellowes, as shown by this transaction, of the exactness of the
merchant and the generosity of the prince, is very striking, and
makes us wish to know more of a Bostonian who behaved so
handsomely.
Thirty years ago a granddaughter of Gustavus Fellowes, in
a little book published at New York by the firm of Hurd and
Houghton ("Fannie St. John, a Romantic Incident of the Amer-
ican Revolution, by Emily Pierpont Delesdernier, author of
' Hortense,' " etc.) undertook to give the world this knowledge.
About 1758, at the age of twenty-one, Gustavus Fellowes was
master and part owner of a vessel in which he made merchant
voyages from Boston to England. He accumulated property,
built vessels as well as sailed them, and when the Revolution
came on, took the side of the Colonies very warmly. He re-
7
50 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
fused in 1773 to take on board a cargo of tea which was to be
shipped from England, to pay the hated tea-tax at Boston ; and
which finally found its way into Boston Harbor, under the
direction of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. He and his
brother Cornelius married two cousins, Hannah, daughter of
Robert Pierpont, and Sarah, daughter of James Pierpont and
Sarah Dorr. The former was the adoptive mother of Fanny
St. John ; their house was at the corner of Harvard Street.
Fanny told her father in March, 1784, this story : —
" It was time, Father, that Providence should begin to show favor to
my little brother Lewis and me. When Mr. Fellowes got to West
Chester, we had neither shoes nor stockings, and were almost naked ;
the weather was getting cold, and the other children of the neighbor-
hood were in the same condition. My little brother, five years old,
being younger, did not feel so much the misery of our lot, though he
cried a good deal ; but I, who remembered well your tender care and
that of poor mother, — how I did grieve when I thought of that, and it
was often ! J. D. and his wife, not knowing who this stranger was
that came to take us away, did all they could to persuade us to stay
with them, and tried to alarm little brother, who began to -cry and say
' I don't want to go with that man ! ' Mr. Fellowes was obliged to take
by force from the arms of Mrs. D. Philip Lewis, crying hard, — and she
crying, too. I said to them, ' We cannot be worse off than we are ; why
should you wish to keep us ? You have nothing to give us ; scarcely
can you supply your own wants. This man has come such a long way,
that he must wish us well ; perhaps God sent him.' I remember this,
too ; I got into this stranger's sleigh with the greatest eagerness, for it
would carry me away from the place where I lost my mother, and had
suffered so many hardships. O Father, you don't know how good and
warm were the clothes that this man, whom God sent, brought with
him ! I thrilled with joy when I put them on. I heard afterward that
his dear wife, my tender mother by adoption, who must have been in-
spired by Heaven, gave him the idea. You could not have been more
kind, yourself, than this good man was, in our whole journey. When
we had to cross a big river on the ice, which he knew gave me a great
fright, he always told us some pretty story, to occupy our minds and
shorten the time. When we got to Hartford, some of his friends there
asked him what he had got in his sleigh. ' Two children,' he re-
plied, ' that I had lost and have just recovered. I am taking them to
Boston and my wife will soon make them forget all they have suffered.
We have seven children there now, and these two little lost sheep will
make nine.' That was just what he said.
"In Boston how I enjoyed being pitied, warmly clothed, having
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CKEVECCEUR. 51
something to eat when I was hungry, and especially not to fear that the
Indians would come ! Lewis began to laugh as soon as he got here. I
scolded him well for having cried at Chester, and for wanting to stay
there. They put me to sleep the first night with Abigail, the oldest
daughter, who was near my age. She is politeness and gentleness
itself, and I love her like my own sister. They put Lewis to bed with
little Gustavus, who is only five months older. The next morning
Mrs. Fellowes combed our hair and put on clothes like those of the
others, and when we had got rested, we were all sent to school together.
Not only did she wash and dress us herself every morning, but she had
us sit by her at the table, and gave us the best that there was, for she
said, ' These poor children have had so hard a time that they must have
more care than our own.' When she went visiting she often took me
rather than my good sister Abby — especially if we were going to sail
in the Harbor, or go to Castle Island, or Roxbury, Cambridge, Dor-
chester or Jamaica Plains. Abby, who is goodness itself, would often
say, ' Yes, mother, take Fanny with you ; I shall like to stay at home
and care for the little ones ; she has more need to have a good time than
I have.' When I grew bigger I refused this preference, and we now
take turns in going out, or go together, often. Then, too, I have
become useful to mother, — for a year and a half I help her every
morning, along with Abby, to wash and dress the younger children, and
send them to school. She has taught me to sew, knit, and spin ; to
mend clothes, make bread, and do a little cooking. She had a baby
eight months ago, and I was the godmother of the little girl, to whom
they gave my name. They gave it also to a whaleship, Fanny, that
sailed two months ago for Brazil. Oh, I hope she will come back well
laden with oil ! When little Fanny is weaned I expect to have the
whole care of her, and have her sleep with me, so that she shall be no
more trouble to her mother. I want you to call her your granddaughter."
This story is related in the third volume of St. John's Frencli
edition of his " Letters of an American' Farmer " (Paris, 1787)
and is confirmed from other sources. After listening to Fanny
he takes up the tale and quotes himself as saying to Fanny
(really to his readers) : —
"Can all this be true? Are all these things possible? this long
series of generosities, kindnesses, hospitality, seems more like a miracle
than the common course of affairs. It comes from a protecting, in-
visible power. If frail humanity could ascend to the first causes of the
events that afflict or concern us, I might tell you the origin of all this.
It would be due to the inscrutable chance that led to the coast of Nor-
mandy those five Americans that you saw here not long ago. Yes, all this
52 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
is the result of that mysterious accident which drifted them across the
English Channel, for 70 leagues, in a frail boat, only 16 feet long, with
a poor sail and no compass, to the very place next where I was living.
I was the one person in all that great province who could have taken a
lively interest in their fate ; for I had come from their country, and had
suffered several years in the same cause. If they had landed 30 miles
farther up or farther down than Ver, quite likely I should never have
heard of them."
After reaching Boston in March, 1784, St. John spent some
days there, and went to church with the Fellowes family. His
daughter whispered to him, u I am delighted ; our neighbors
who have so often spoken of you, and have been so glad to hear
of your coming, will be much gratified to see us, father and
children, come to 'worship with them ' ["An expression pe-
culiar to Boston,' 1 says St. John in a note] and offer together
at God's altar their prayers and thanksgiving." This reflec-
tion, he says, was very touching. He adds: —
" Nor was I less touched at the sort of sensation that my presence in
the church caused; several persons turned their eyes towards me, and
seemed to look at me with much attention. I heard some in the next
pews say softly, ' That is Fanny's father.' And I noticed how much my
child enjoyed this mark of public interest. What was my surprise on
coming out of church to have Mr. Fellowes introduce me to the five
Americans — [George Little, Alexander Story, Clement Lemon, Samuel
Wales, and John Collins] whom I have mentioned. Learning that I
was to be at this church, they had come there on purpose to see me.
A crowd of citizens then came up, shook my hand and congratulated me
on my happy return, and on finding my children in such good hands.
* It is to your worthy fellow-citizen,' said I, ' that I owe all this, and to
the Divine Providence which interested him in them, without having
known their father.' Mr. Fellowes then invited the five Americans to
dine with me."
Is not this a pleasing picture of Boston hospitality one hun-
dred and twenty years ago ? From one account we learn that
Gustavus Fellowes, Jr., was a little older than Louis St. John,
who was born October 22, 1774, at Pine Hill, near Cornwall,
New York, and that Fanny Fellowes was born in 1782, and
Abby in 1770. The ages, etc., of these children and of his
own are not always very exactly given by St. John, who called
Louis only five in 1781, though he was really seven, and says
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 53
Fanny was but nine, when she was nearly eleven, having been
1)01*11, as we know by the New York record, December 14, 1770.
As I said, dates are the weak point with St. John, though he
was an exact mathematician • he seems to have changed them
to suit himself. From other sources we have the true dates.
He had left his farm on the Hudson late in April, 1779, reached
New York a few days or weeks later, was detained there, some
of the time in prison, until September 1, 1780, when he was
allowed to sail for England. After a voyage of six weeks he
was shipwrecked on the Irish coast, but reached Dublin in
October, and seems to have spent the winter there with his
elder son, Alexander ("Ally"). In May, 1781, he was in
London, and late in that summer he sailed for Ostend, and
reached his paternal home in Normandy, August 2, 1781.
August 10, Count de Houdetot wrote to Dr. Franklin recom-
mending him as " having lost the greater part of his property
by the present war." The 27th of August he wrote himself to
Franklin, then in Paris, speaking of the five Americans, and say-
ing, " As they are genteel, discreet men from the Massachu-
setts, I have placed them in a good house and procured them
the hospitality of the city of Caen." Later in the year, he in-
formed Franklin, " The Americans who escaped from England
last summer are happily embarked for Newbury, in Massachu-
setts," where they seem to have arrived in November.
Mme. de Houdetot had spoken of St. John to Franklin
under the name of Crevecceur while he at that time always
had signed himself St. John. Explaining this to Franklin
(September 26, 1781), he said in his peculiar English: —
" The reason of the mistake proceeds from the singularity of the
French custom, which renders their names almost arbitrary, and often
leads them to forget their family ones. It is in consequence of this that
there are more alias dictios in this than in any other country in Europe.
The name of our family is St. Jean, in English St. John — a name as
ancient as the conquest of England by William the Bastard."
This story has been extended beyond my first intention
because it introduces so much testimony from a forgotten
source to the native philanthropy of Bostonians. The Sons
and Daughters of the Revolution and Colonial Dames, etc.,
are seeking to connect their ancestry with persons of dis-
tinction. Gibbon said in regard to the descent of the earls of
54 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
Denbigh from the House of Austria — a fiction now exploded
- — and the connection of Fielding, the novelist, Avith Lord
Denbigh : " The successors of Charles V. may disdain their
brethren of England ; but the romance of Tom Jones will out-
live the palace of the Eseurial." So I would say to the present
generation : " Your distant ancestors may have been the great-
est of centurions or the most fraudulent of Plantagenets ; but
your true glory of descent will be to have had for ancestors
those plain citizens of Boston, to whom no good cause ever
appealed in vain, and who gave away their money with a
generosity as natural as was the frugality and industry which
had supplied it."
About the time of Fanny St. John's marriage in New York
to M. Otto (the German diplomatist, who had been brought to
this country by Luzerne, as a secretary of the French legation),
that is, in 1790, Gustavus Fellowes experienced reverses in
business, sold his fine estate on Harvard and Washington
Streets, and removed to Machias in Maine. There he engaged
in the Labrador fisheries (having formerly been interested in
whale-fishing), and remained in Machias some years. At the
request of his wealthier brother, Nathaniel Fellowes, who
owned rich plantations in Cuba, he returned to Boston, and for
a time the two brothers lived together in Roxbury. About
1805 Nathaniel died in Cuba, and there was a dispute over his
property, in consequence of the production of a will made in
Cuba, which differed materially from the one he had left in Bos-
ton. The Spanish will was eventually followed ; but some com-
promise seems to have been made by which his grandchildren,
by his daughter, Mrs. Jonathan Amory, received the income of
his Boston property, while that in Cuba, consisting of planta-
tions, sugar-mills, etc., and valued in 180G at $350,000, went
to his nephew residing in Cuba. Gustavus Fellowes received
little or nothing, and the fortunes of that branch of the family
were never restored. During their residence at Machias an
acquaintance seems to have been formed between the Fellowes
family and that of Captain Delesdernier, a Swiss officer in the
Revolution, who had established himself in eastern Maine.
This led ultimately to the marriage of one of the adopted
sisters of Fanny St. John to Louis F. Delesdernier ; Miss
Emily was their daughter, and thus the granddaughter of
Gustavus Fellowes, of whom her little book gives a glowing
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CEEVECCEUK. b5
account. He spent the later years of his life at a house in
Hollis Street, Boston, and is described by her as
"a man of most dignified appearance and address. His abundant
hair was silvery white, and lay in close curls all over the noble head
and around the high, intellectual brow. He had dark eyes of peculiar
brilliancy, and on his cheeks there was the ruddy glow of health to the
last."
He sleeps, as mentioned, in the old burying-ground at the
foot of the Common on Boylston Street, in the Davis-May
tomb. One of his daughters had married, in the May family,
a cousin of Mrs. Alcott, the mother of Louisa Alcott.
The family of Miss De Lesdernier (as Albert Gallatin spelt
the Swiss name) deserves a brief mention. Its founder in
America was a colonist of Nova Scotia, who in 1780 had five
sons, born there or in Geneva. One of these, Louis Frederic
(born in 1751), had engaged in a plan to capture a Brit-
ish, fort akthe head of the Bay of Fundy ; failing in which, he
was compelled to flee to Machias, where Colonel John Allan
commanded a small fort for Massachusetts. In May, 1777,
Allan made Lesdernier his secretary, with the rank of lieuten-
ant in the Revolutionary Army. He was soon after captured
by the British and carried into Halifax, where he remained
a prisoner until exchanged, at some time before September,
1780. At that time young Gallatin, with his friend Henri
Serre, found Louis Lesdernier living in one of the four or five
log-houses of a clearing near Colonel Allan's fort at Machias ;
began to live with him there, and to engage in trade. They
had met his mother at a French coffee-house in Boston, and
in consequence of this acquaintance had come to Machias.
They had left Geneva secretly in April, 1780, landed at
Gloucester in July, from a New England vessel sailing out
of L'Orient in France, and at once proceeded to Boston, and
repaired to the coffee-house of M. Tahon, in North Street,
where they found Mme. Lesdernier. Gallatin, who was only
nineteen, enjoyed the wild life in Maine, and remained more
than a year, trading with Indians, campaigning a little, and
canoeing a good deal. Serre, writing to their friend Badollet
in Geneva, said : —
"We are here in Machias, five Genevans in all, men and women.
True, three of them were born in America, but they have preserved the
56 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
republican spirit of their ancestors, and M. Lesdernier junior, born in
America of a Genevese father, is the most zealous of all the Americans
I have seen for the liberty of his country. We live in the forest beside
a river; we can hunt, fish, and either bathe or skate according to the
season. Just now we are roasting ducks before a wood-fire, — and we
cut the wood ourselves. In Geneva, as you know, we sail in boats on
the Lake ; here I have more fun, guiding the Indian canoes. They are
made of birch bark, and with one or two inside they go charmingly.
Every small stream has water enough for them ; you can lie down as in
bed, and paddle them at your ease. Going down a tiny river, in superb
weather, reclining in the canoe, on a blanket, I could see the meadow
but two feet away. , Indeed there was so little water that I seemed to
glide over grass and reeds. Come out next summer and take a hand
with me in paddling a canoe ! We will go up the St. John and the
St. Lawrence, and visit Canada."
In fact they did go to Passamaquoddy, now Eastport, where
Lesdernier was afterwards postmaster and collector of the
port ; and they helped him cut hay " on Frost's meadow, near
Boyden's Lake."
Gallatin went away in October, 1781, and the next } r ear was
teaching French to students in Harvard College. This place
was procured for him by Dr. Bentley of Salem. From there
he went to Virginia and Pennsylvania, and at the age of forty
was Secretary of the Treasury under President Jefferson.
Lesdernier remained at Eastport, to which he had migrated,
and in due time married the Widow Clarke, a daughter of
Gustavus Fellowes, then of Machias, and was the father of Miss
Emily, who wrote "Fannie St. John." His son, William
Delesdernier, a contemporary of my cousin, Benjamin Leavitt
of Eastport, was a Democratic politician, and sheriff of Wash-
ington County ; and two of his sons, Lewis Frederick of Texas,
and another, served in the Confederate navy and army during
the Civil War. The grandfather was living in 1834, but died
about that time in Calais, Maine.
Like his benefactor, Gustavus Fellowes, St. John found
Fortune rather fickle. On his return to France in 1781, after
so many trials, he had a few years of good fortune. His family
friends took him up warmly, and introduced him in good com-
pany, of which at first he was rather shy, from his forgetful-
ness of his native French. That knowledge soon came back
to him, and his book had such success in England that St. John
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 57
became a lion. He preferred to live in America, and his
friends at court, Beauvau, d'Harcourt, Condorcet, etc., were
able to procure for him the important office of French consul
at New York, to which post he came back late in 1783, just
before the British army finally evacuated New York. He
found there, among a mass of letters, that one from Mr. Fel-
lowes above quoted, which had gone to England on its way to
France and come back to New York without finding St. John.
His friends in the city told him of his wife's death ; but he was
unable to go on to Boston to look up his children till March,
1784, when he had been almost five years separated from them.
He then resumed his active habits, — visited Boston, New
Haven, the upper Hudson, Philadelphia, and the newer settle-
ments of Pennsylvania, and the fast-growing State of Vermont,
not yet recognized as a member of the Union. Through his
friend and correspondent, Ethan Allen, he procured the naming
of Vermont towns, — Vergennes for the French minister, St.
Johnsbury for himself, and Danville for his friend D'Anville-
He probably drew the device for the escutcheon of Vermont,
and gave its French name to the Green Mountain State. His
French friends and his daughter Fanny in 1784-1785 became
citizens of New Haven.
This mark of honor shown by the good people of Connecti-
cut to French notables for whom they had only the word of
St. John, excited some ridicule and some wrath in Paris, when
it became public there ; and St. John took pains to make it
known. The private Memoirs of Bachaumont, then a person
of note, contain a pretended letter from New Haven, perhaps
fabricated in Paris, which said : —
" The joke of this collection of names is that none of these persons
is known here in New Haven, except by name. It is a shocking in-
gratitude to have preferred these titled aristocrats to our real benefac-
tors, Leray de Chaumont, Montyon, Beaumarchais and the principal
financiers of Bordeaux, Nantes and other French seaports, who were
the first and real authors of our glory and liberty, by furnishing us
supplies and weapons."
There was some truth in this. The incident shows, among
other things, how much such empty honors were then valued
in France, as coming from the idealized republic of Franklin,
Jefferson, and Washington. Franklin had been replaced in
58 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
France as American ambassador by Jefferson when St. John,
returning from his consulship, landed at L' Orient in July, 1785,
and Jefferson became, as Franklin had been, one of the inti-
mates of the Countess de Houdetot, and a correspondent of St.
John. But an early occupation of the returned French consul
was to prepare a third volume of his popular " Letters." The
two French volumes of 1784 had sold so well that a new edi-
tion was called for; and another volume could be ventured.
Writing to his son Ally (November 13, 1785) and telling him
this, St. John said: "I shall put into it several useful things;
and I depend on narrating the unhappy adventures of your
sister Fanny and your brother Louis, together with the won-
derful story of the assistance which Mr. Fellowes gave them."
This is the passage just recited. But he also went into soci-
ety a great deal, visiting his dukes and countesses, and dining
often with Jefferson at the legation in Paris. Brissot de War-
ville, however, at that time a warm friend of St. John, stirred
up a quarrel between him and the Marquis de Chastellux, who
had travelled in America, and did not think so well of the
Quakers as St. John did. As Chastellux was an intimate of
St. John's titled friends, this was an annoyance that shows its
traces in a letter from Jefferson to St. John (December 8, 1786),
which also indicates the terms on which they then were : —
" I have just done reading the New York newspapers, and send them
to you, herewith. When you have done with them, I will thank you to
return them, as Mr. Short has not read them. M. Marmontel and
Madame are coming to dine with me day after to-morrow (Sunday), and
I hope the good Countess D' Houdetot will be disengaged that day,
and will be good enough to come too. We dine at 3 o'clock. I hardly
dare to ask you, too, because a person (Philip Mazzei) is likely to
come with the Marmontels, who is, I believe, disagreeable to you.
Nevertheless you are the best judge of that, and you know I shall
be happy to see you, if the company suits you. Will you be good
enough to transmit my invitation to the Countess, and let me know her
answer?"
From a paper of my friend Mr. S. O. Todd, of St. Johnsbury,
Vermont, I extract this:
"A favored residence of the countess was at Sannois, a few miles
from Paris; there on the 12th of April, 1781, she and her friends
had received that sage American, Benjamin Franklin, with unex-
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 59
pected civilities. Mme. d'Houdetot and her party walked a half-
mile from her Sannois chateau to meet the American statesman and
philosopher, and the countess greeted him with a verse of her own
composition. At an elaborate dinner, toasts, seven in number, were
given in Franklin's honor, by the countess and others. A prolongation
of festivities included in the afternoon the planting by Franklin in the
garden of the chateau, of a Virginia locust. A poetic effusion by the
countess for this ceremony was afterward engraved upon a marble
column close at hand. On his return to America the countess wrote
to Franklin: 'Think of me sometimes, of Sannois, and the revered
tree planted by your hands, which grows on soil belonging to me. I
preserve the memory of those moments you have so kindly passed
here, and with tender interest I cultivate the memorial you have left
of your transit.' "
It was in this same year, 1781, that St. John de Crevecoeur
arrived in France and had awakened the interest of Mme.
de Houdetot, who continued to be his good friend till her
death, a few months only before his own. After her death
he paid a grateful tribute to her. Of her literary character
he said : —
" The mind and memory of Mme. d'Houdetot, enriched by constant
reading of the best authors, and frequent conversations with one and
another of her learned friends, (Marmontel, d'Alembert, etc.,) fur-
nished to her conversation a limitless and inextinguishable flow of ideas
which made it instructive and delightful. To this talent she united a
perfect knowledge of the vernacular, a taste and judgment which nearly
approached infallibility. This is why she was so often consulted by
young authors. Florian, the amiable Florian, one of the most intimate
of her friends, did not publish a book, not even a fable, until he had
submitted the manuscript to the wise criticism of Mme. d'Houdetot.
Removed, by taste and principle, from all tendency to malevolence,
she never had an enemy. I have often heard her say that the only
way to avoid satire and malicious gossip was never to merit them.
Her silence toward those who had been indiscreet or reprehensible,
was not less remarkable than her talent for praising, appreciating, and
getting others to esteem all worthy action."
Upon St. John's return to New York, early in 1787, this
amiable Countess said to him, a few days before he left her
country house at Sannois for L' Orient : —
" My friend, you are leaving your two dear boys here, and you know
my fondness for these young sufferers by the calamities of war. From
60 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
now until you come back, I will adopt them ; I desire they should love
and consider me as their mamma, and hope they will call me by that
name, We shall correspond frequently. Every Thursday I will take
them to dine with Mr. Jefferson ; every Sunday he and your boys shall
dine with me ; when convenient I will take them to the theatre. They
are at school, but they shall spend all their vacations with me, whether
I remain here at Sannois, or go to the Marais or to Mereville."
She kept her word, and was most gratefully remembered by
St. John. 1
Like this famous woman, St. John was very faithful in his
friendships. He had received many civilities (and no doubt
his fortunes had been advanced) at the hands of the Penn-
sylvania Quakers, of whom he always spoke well. They were
quite in the way of being Tories during the Revolution, — at
least the older Quakers, — and Brissot, when he turned against
his friend St. John, accused him of having been a Tory too
and very much afraid that secret would be revealed to his
American friends. Probably he did not at first take sides
with the patriots ; but after the defeat of Burgoyne was
followed by the French alliance, he left no doubt on which
side his sympathies were. His long sojourn at Nantucket,
where the Quakers were averse to the approaching war, gives
color to the story that he hoped for a peaceful solution of the
quarrel, as many of the good patriots did. In the French
edition of the " Letters " he has some anecdotes of the Penn-
sylvania and Delaware Quakers which do not appear in the
English book. One of his chapters has much to say of Walter
Mifflin and the Vinings of Delaware, and of that illustrious
Quaker of French parentage, Anthony Benezet, one of the
first abolitionists in America. St. John brings out the fact
that it was Benezet and his friend Warner Mifflin who first
moved actively in Virginia and Pennsylvania for the abolition
of slavery and the discontinuance of the slave trade. A life
1 Portraits of the St. Johns. In April, 1786, St. John, being in Paris, wrote to
his son Ally at Caen : " Poree, my father's valet, on his way to Pierpont, by
way of Caen, will carry you a paper-box which contains a portrait of the kind
Countess (Houdetot), one of Fanny, of Mr. Fellowes, and of your papa." Of
these the first and last survive, and are engraved in Robert St. John's life of his
ancestor. They are profile sketches in black chalk, finished in pastel. On the
backs of the frames are these English names, written by St. John : " The right
honorable lady Sophia, comtesse de Houdetot," and " Saint John de Crevecoeur,
your father." Perhaps the other two have not disappeared.
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 61
of Warner Mifflin, published at Philadelphia in 1905, by Miss
Hilda Justice, his descendant, gives St. John's account of
Mifflin's mission to Howe and Washington. Basing upon this
narrative of St. John his plot of " The Quaker," Kotzebue,
the prolific German playwright, took Mifflin for his hero. This
one-act drama has been translated by Miss Amelia Gummere,
and published in the " Pennsylvania Magazine " of October,
1905. This Mifflin was the first cousin of General Mifflin of the
Revolutionary Army. He was one of a committee sent by the
Quakers of Delaware (1777), about the time of the battle of
Germantown, to persuade Sir William Howe and General
Washington to declare an armistice in the region of the Dela-
ware River, and abate the horrors of war, which were then
excessive in that neighborhood. St. John quotes Warner
Mifflin as saying this to " Friend William Howe " : —
•"Being English, perhaps you know that the Society of Friends
never takes part in wars, nor in disputes public or private. The
Gospel forbids us, by enjoining us to view all men as our brothers. At
the same time that it recommends peace and fraternity among ourselves,
it bids us do what we can to anticipate and prevent evil. Our brethren
of Delaware, in our Meeting for Sufferings, have thought it possible to
procure an interview between thee and Friend George Washington,
which might bring about an armistice, at least during winter ; and that
such an armistice might lead to a good understanding and eventually to
peace. Believing this to be a sound and useful idea, inspired by the
Spirit, whence come all our good thoughts, as well as any good we may
do, I have been deputed to communicate it to you. What do you think
of it, Friend Howe ? "
Sir William, thus appealed to, said : —
" I like your idea: it seems noble, and may be useful. Whether it
succeeds or not, it does you honor, and confirms the good opinion I
always had of your sect. I like to see those who do not take part in
war striving to soften its horrors, and taking measures to restore peace.
But the case is not the same with General Washington and myself.
He can take the orders of Congress within four days, but I must have
some months to get those of my king. However, if an interview is
possible, I will gladly welcome a short armistice, to give my troops
time to rest and enjoy a little vacation."
For this reason, probably, Congress did not order the armistice,
but the purpose of the Quakers was respected by both sides.
62 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
Brissot de Warville took the same view of the Quakers that
St. John did at first, praising them for their hatred of tyranny
and their love of free speech. But later Brissot rather failed
to support St. John in his American experiences, as also
did Mazzei. In 1791, alluding to the conduct of the Quakers
during the war, Brissot says : —
" M. Crevecoeur has assured me that the Quakers were eager to
mitigate the woes of war, and aid the prisoners at New York with
money, food, and even with bail, when there was need of it. He has
told me of seeing in Dutchess county, New York, some Quakers jour-
neying in a wagon when it was very cold, going to make donations of
food to the prisons."
Of the general accuracy of St. John's descriptions of Amer-
ican scenery and manners Brissot speaks in terms of praise,
and his language shows how well known were the French
" Letters." Arriving at New York from Boston in August,
1788, Brissot says : —
" I am reading again the description given by M. Crevecoeur of this
part of the United States, and after comparing all the particulars with
what I have yet seen, I must confess that all the strokes in the picture
are faithful. . . . Albany is the chief town of rural New York, situ-
ated where the Mohawk River empties into the North River. This
valley is the region of which M. Crevecoeur has given a sketch so
enchanting ; its rigorous winters he has transformed into a delightful
season for men who chiefly love the pleasures of Nature."
Here the allusion is to that remarkable picture of the com-
ing on of winter, the scene of which he places at German
Flats, then the chief town of Herkimer County, sixty miles
west of Schenectady, in the Mohawk valley. It is now a part
of the town of Herkimer, and has lost those rural features
which so delighted St. John. His description still applies,
however, so far as nature is concerned, to many hundred
townships in the northeastern States.
St. John numbered among his American friends President
Stiles of Yale College, and describes at much length a college
commencement there in 1784, or later, with long extracts from
an address or sermon by Dr. Stiles, who had gone from the
same wealthy parish in New Hampshire to the president's
chair at New Haven, which Dr. Langdon had quitted with
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECGEUB. 63
regret, a few years earlier, to sacrifice his health and peace of
mind in the squabbles of Harvard College, only to be repaid
with insolence, neglect, and an unsettled bill of expenses.
Dr. Stiles was more fortunate. I find in the third volume
of his recently published ik Literary Diary " (p. 150) this
entry : —
"March 1, 1785; I drafted a diploma of the Freedom of the City
[New Haven] for M. Michael St. John de Crevecceur, Consul of France
for Connecticut, N. York and New Jersey."
To this in a note is added : —
" A letter from this gentleman is preserved among Dr. Stiles's
papers, as follows : —
New York, 8th June, 1785.
Mr. President : — A second French edition of the 2 vols, of ye
American Farmer's Letters being on the eve of appearing, I am ear-
nestly desired by the editor of that work, which has had the Good For-
tune of Pleasing the Publick ; & he would think himself very much
obliged to you, if you 'd think proper to communicate to him some
anecdotes of ye Late War, — by Anecdotes the Editor Means, Un-
common Instances of Bravery, Resignation, Patience, Courage, —
Cruelty on the Part of our Ennemies, or any other Characteristics
of the Violence of the War, & of the brave Resistance of the
Americans.
They would be not less interesting were they on some Natural Sub-
ject ; but such is the high Esteem and Veneration the Editor of that
Work has for the President of Yale College, that with Great Pleasure
he leaves to you the Nature and Choice of these anecdotes which would
appear with your name if not disagreeable to you. I am very sure
that was this subject Introduced among your Friends, a Great number
of Curious & Interesting Facts would be mentioned which it wou'd be
a Great Pity to loose & to see sunk in oblivion. The late revolution
is an object so Interesting to humanity in General, that not the least
Feature of it ought to be lost. Receive therefore kindly this Request
of the Editor abovementioned & deign to contribute to the Greater Per-
fection of that work by communicating to him whatever may have come
to your knowledge or to that of your Friends.
I believe I shall sail from here ere I have received the Diplomas you
have so Generously contributed to Procure — but if they are sent to
Col. Burr or to my office No. 202 Queen Street, they will be forwarded
to me in Normandy. Depend on my Zeal to Procure for your College
such Proofs of these Good & Great People's gratitude as will be ade-
64 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
quate to the Favor & Honor conferred on them by the City of New-
Haven.
Wishing you & the College at the head of which you so worthily
Preside every degree of Prosperity I take my leave of you : Receive
kindly this Mark of the high Esteem and unfeigned Respect wherewith
I subscribe Myself Sir Your Very Humble Serv't
St. John.
Mr. Dexter, Stiles's editor, adds in a note : " The edition
referred to was published at Paris in 1787, but did not con-
tain any contribution from Dr. Stiles." About fifty anecdotes
are in it, and some of them date from New Haven. Dr. Stiles
wrote the diplomas, and they were so complimentary to
St. John (who had procured the same honor for Mme. de Hou-
detot and her friend St. Lambert, etc.) that in translating
them for his son Louis he left out much of the praise. The
particular work he had done for New Haven was in regard to
a botanic garden, — which apparently Colonel Jesse Wood-
hull's brother Richard (discharged in 1765 from the faculty
of Yale for the high crime of being a Sandemanian) already
had in that city. These diplomas are probably still in the
records of New Haven. Fanny St. John, as already men-
tioned, was made a Citoyenne of New Haven at the age
of fifteen ! She was still at the house of Mr. Fellowes in
Boston, where she remained till her father returned from
France in 1787 ; and she saw a great fire there, near her
protector's house, which made her ill, — so narrowly did the
Fellowes family escape burning out.
St. John's letter to President Stiles shows how much he
valued his slight connection with the American Revolution,
many episodes of which appear or are the subject of allusion
and disquisition in his six French volumes.
It is surprising that nearly all the American comment on St.
John, as a writer, thinker, and observer, should be based wholly
on the imperfect first volume of his " Letters" published in Eng-
land in 1782, under circumstances that restricted his expres-
sion of regard for the revolted Colonies, not yet acknowledged
by George III. as independent States. This English edition,
though somewhat improved in the revision of 1783, had in
fact little more than a third part of the contents of his final
French edition of 1787. It contains less than 100,000 words,
whereas the French edition has 280,000. If to this we add the
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 65
contents of the three volumes of 1801, we shall find that
St. John published in French about five times as much as in
English ; and an examination of his six volumes will show that
their contents are a far more valuable contribution to Ameri-
can history, topography, and social condition, from 1757 to
1800, than any other contemporary author has left us. Their
maps and engravings are well drawn and engraved, their infor-
mation is generally accurate, except in the matter of dates,
and they supply facts for which the newspapers and public
documents of the period might be searched in vain. A curious
interest attaches to the vignettes in the three volumes of 1787.
They are circular, like medals, and may have been designed
for such. In the second volume France, helmeted and armed
like Pallas, wields her spear, and holds forth her fleur de lys
shield, to protect America, as the infant Hercules, strangling
the serpents, against the rampant British lion. The legend
around the circle is Horace's line, " Non sine dis animosus in-
fans." Below this device are the dates of the two surrenders,
— at Saratoga, October 17, 1777, and October 19, 1781, at
Yorktown. This is the best device of the three. The first
volume has a funeral monument, on which are inscribed the
names of Generals Warren, Wooster, Montgomery, and Mercer.
Beneath the monument, outstretched on the ground, lies
America, in Indian undress, mourning for her slain sons.
The legend this time reads, " O, Manes Heroum, vestra libera
est patria." In the third volume the figure is an all-seeing
eye, from which radiate beams of light to or from thirteen
stars, representing the new States of our Union, with the
motto around them, " Nova Constellatio." To carry out this
series of allegories, a frontispiece in one volume represents
America, as a nursing mother in Indian dress, with hungry
babes clinging about her, and the inscription below, " Ubi
Libertas et Panis, ibi Patria." The abundance of food among
American farmers always delighted St. John.
St. John's life as an " American Farmer," his favorite title,
lasted at most but seventeen years, — that is, from 1762 to
1779; nor did he, as French consul, own or cultivate any con-
siderable tract of land. But in his residence at New York
City, which brought him from 1783 to 1790 into relations with
many distinguished men, he journeyed extensively in this
country, besides making a visit or two in France. After 1790
9
66 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
he never resided in this country, nor ever came to it, — al-
though during the stormy times of the French Revolution he
often dated his letters to his children and friends from places
in America, for reasons of caution. His only daughter, Frances
America (Fanny St. John), was married to M. Otto in New
York, in April, 1790, just before her father returned to France
for the last time. The wedding was at St. Peter's Church,
and at the ceremony were present Jefferson of Virginia,
Colonel Wadsworth of Hartford, and Jonathan Trumbull of
New Haven, Judge Richard Morris and William Seaton of New
York, and other American friends of the Farmer-Consul.
Madame Otto, born in a log-cabin, afterwards as the Countess
Otto moved in the best society of France, England, and Ger-
many. Her little brother Louis, born by the Hudson in 1774,
went with his father to France in 1784, but as a youth, to
avoid some perils of the Reign of Terror, came back to New
York, and lived a pioneer's life for some years in New Jersey.
Returning to France, he became an officer in Napoleon's
Italian army, and served through the Napoleonic wars ; then
married, and was the grandfather of Robert St. John, who
wrote his father's life, and is our authority for most of the
authenticated facts thereof. Alexander and Louis St. John
were the two boys for whom Mme. de Houdetot' took such
pains while they were at school in France. " Ally " died early
during the French Revolution.
Crevecoeur had published his first volume in England, be-
cause it was then a ready market for all books relating to
America. Although the War of the Revolution was not ended
and New York was still held by the British troops, it was
well understood that there would soon be peace upon some
conditions. Crevecoeur, in that love of mystification which
haunted him from the first, and for which there may have
been a reason of personal safety originally, had pretended in his
London book to be a " farmer in Pennsylvania," though it was
nearly twenty years since he could have really cultivated land
there, if ever. Pouncing upon this harmless disguise, as if it
covered a wicked purpose to injure England, Samuel Ayscough,
a pedantic parson, with much industry of the bookworm sort,
as already mentioned, attacked St. John in 1783, in a pamphlet
issued by John Fielding in Paternoster Row. He said this
among other severities: —
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CEEVECGEUR. 67
u The peace of the literary world is again disturbed by a new species
of forgery, imported from the Continent of America, whose emissaries
are endeavoring to sow the same seed in this country which has been so
much cultivated there as to produce a total dismemberment from the
British Empire. A dismemberment of which the Americans will
long repent; from a country which they ought to have bent every
nerve to have encouraged and supported. A country which had been
the means of cultivating their deserts, populating their colonies,
providing for their necessities, defending them at the expense of
immense treasure and blood, and disposing of the produce of their
fields ; whilst the only advantage received in return consisted in sup-
plying their wants with our manufactures, — in general on more
reasonable terms than it was in the power of any other nation to
do. . . . It is my intention to show that this ' Farmer in Pennsylva-
nia ' was not an American born, as he pretends ; that he never was a
farmer there ; that many things which he represents are false ; that
others, reported as recent facts, are old stories. ... It is a fact well
known that he is a Frenchman, born in Normandy ; that his residence
was chiefly at New York, and there looked upon by the Loyalists as
no friend to Englishmen. . . . The book will plainly appear to be de-
signed for the purpose of encouraging foreigners to emigrate and settle
in America, which he calls ' the asylum of freedom, the cradle of future
nations, the refuge of distressed Europeans.' . . . To check as much
as possible the fatal tendency of such publications cannot be an object
beneath the attention of the guardians of our laws and liberties."
There is no doubt that the effect of Crevecoeur's book,
widely read in all western Europe, did promote emigration,
and possibly that may have been its design. But it was rather
in a general spirit of philanthropy, which was his most dis-
tinguishing trait, that this generous Frenchman wrote it. He
was himself surprised at the popularity of his " Letters," and
thus was tempted to continue them beyond his own immediate
observations. Even in his first book he used the researches and
accounts of others ; and this he did more constantly in his final
work, the " Journey in Upper Pennsylvania."
Soon after St. John's return to New Yoik in 1787, he
called on Washington (perhaps at Mount Vernon), and pre-
sented him with the new three-volume edition of the French
" Letters " ; he also sent a copy of the third volume, which was
wholly new, to Dr. Franklin at Philadelphia, and the three
volumes to Governor Bowdoin, then president of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston. These three copies
68 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
(or at least the new volume of each) have settled in Boston,
— Washington's copy at the Athenaeum Library; Franklin's,
with his autograph, at the Public Library; and Bowdoin's, at
the new home of the Academy in Newbury Street. The letters
of St. John to Bowdoin came into the hands of his kinsman,
Mr. Winthrop, were read by him to this Society in 1874, and
printed in our Proceedings the next year. At that time Bow-
doin was interested in paper mills at Milton, and in one of the
latest of these letters (February 3, 1787) St. John mentions
an infant invention he had seen in France which he hoped
Bowdoin would experiment with. It was the treatment of
various vegetable fibres chemically so as to convert them into
good paper, — a process since brought to great perfection and
generally introduced all over the world in the manufacture of
wood into paper. St. John wrote : —
" Give me leave to send you a small book, printed on a new invented
paper made with the bark of the Tilleul, a specie of the linden ; at the
end of which you will find also several specimens of other papers, made
with a variety of roots, plants and barks, and three sheets with woollen
rags. The inventor is but just beginning these useful experiments, and
hopes to find out the art of converting into paper every specie of vege-
table, and whitening his work with vitriolic acid. I wish these samples
may urge your paper-makers at Milton to make some trials, which, in
a country where rags are so scarce, cannot but be very important, either
for pasteboard, sheathing of vessels, wrapping of sugar, etc."
In a letter to his patron, the Due d'Harcourt, written from
New York five months later (July 27, 1787), St. John dwells
on the energy and opportunities of the United States in devel-
oping manufactures. He says : —
" The Americans are beginning to understand that it is not English
commerce that enriches them, so much as national manufactures, such
as are most suited to their climate and the genius of the people. Neces-
sity, misfortune, the constant flow of gold and silver from the country
to pay for English merchandise, have opened their eyes."
He then goes on to extol the hardy enterprise of the New
England and New York people in thus recovering themselves
from the losses of the Revolutionary War.
This is one example, out of' many, of the steady interest
St, John took in the progress of invention. He was early
convinced of the feasibility of steam navigation ; wrote up
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCETTR. 69
the first efforts of that kind on the Potomac and the Delaware
rivers, and followed Fulton in his success on the Hudson.
Indeed, like Franklin and Jefferson, his mind seems ever to
have been occupied with thoughts for the advancement of
science, the arts, and the good of mankind. Upon this philan-
thropic state of feeling the French Revolution, and its ensuing
and long continuing wars, came like a destructive cataclysm.
Its after effects were surprisingly good, but its first shock was
appalling to men of heart and practical sense like St. John.
He favored the abrogation of privilege, but abhorred the
excesses of the Jacobins, by which many of his friends suf-
fered death, banishment, or loss of fortune. Protected by his
own prudence and the abilities of his son-in-law, Otto, St. John
survived the Oidbute Generate, and lived almost to see the
downfall of Napoleon, under whom his son, son-in-law, and
granddaughter had taken service. Otto was sent to Munich
by Napoleon in 1802, and his father-in-law joined him there
in 1806, for three years. This brought him into relations with
the artists, men of science, and philosophers of Bavaria, — a
small kingdom, then growing in fame, and which had profited
much by the genius and industry of a Massachusetts man,
Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. But St. John was then
upwards of seventy, and inclining, with all his optimism, to
take those dark views which are the worst discomfort of age.
His pride was pleased by the attentions of the king, who had
read his " American Letters" both in French and English ; but
he disliked the manners and conversation of the nobles, and
preferred the middle class and the people, whom he fairly
appreciated.
Having dealt in his first series of " Letters " chiefly with the
scenery of the northeastern Colonies and infant States, though
he had introduced visits to Carolina and Bermuda, St. John,
while weathering the storms of the French Revolution, seems
to have thought it proper, in a new series, to take up the con-
dition, natural advantages, and social habits of the Southern
and Western States, the Indian tribes, and Canada. He there-
fore pieced together and began to print at Paris, in 1800, a
new three-volume work, to which he gave the title of " A
Journey in Upper Pennsylvania," though little of it was
devoted to that backwoods country as he had known it.
Probably the life of his son Louis as a pioneer in a part of
70 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
that region may have suggested this early chapter. But pres-
ently he turned to other topics, and told a long story about a
Carolina planter, an old man, Mr. Bull by name, who in the
later years of oar Revolution left his plantation for fear of the
tories, and took to the Carolina forest, moving northward and
avoiding the army of Cornwallis. St. John professes to have
found him near Fincastle, in Virginia, and to have heard "from
him the details of his gypsy life, with his family and his
negroes, from April, 1778, to 1782, after the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown. They planted crops each year,
hunted for game, and fed their cattle and horses on the rich
pasturage of the bottom lands. Mr. Bull said : —
" Alone in the midst of these vast solitudes we had for witnesses of
our labor only the sweet, melodious meadow-lark, the jay, the chatter-
ing boblincorn, the tufted starling, the bold king-bird, the shrill whistling
cat-bird, and the thrushes with their gentle, harmonious notes. These
birds, with the mock-bird, ignorant of the destructive power of man,
were constantly about us, and seemed to view us with curiosity rather
than terror. Every evening as soon as the sun set, great flocks of cranes
rose slowly, in regular and majestic spirals, to a great height, as if to
catch the last glimpse of the sun, whose rays sometimes glanced on their
whitish wings, and met our eyes as we watched them. They soon came
down again in the same order and as silently to the places they had
just left. This spectacle occurred almost daily when the sky was clear,
and lasted more than half an hour. In this lovely solitude we passed
our first winter. I built a spacious, comfortable cabin, at the foot of one
of the largest oaks I ever saw ; and in this my two daughters gave birth
to the two grandsons whom you see here with me. In memory of their
birthplace I gave them the names of Pacolet and Nawassa, the streams
at whose confluence I had built my cabin."
This was near the Broad River, a few miles south of North
Carolina ; for the topography of St John is confirmed by his
contemporary, Dr. Morse. The second winter he was near
the headwaters of the Yadkin River ; the third near those of
the river Dan, not far from a mountain called Ararat. In
that region were the Carolina Moravians, at Wachovia, whose
chief town, Salem, corresponding to Bethlehem in Pennsyl-
vania, is still inhabited by these pious people. The old Noah
of this modern Ararat went on to say: —
" During the four years of my pilgrimage I think I must have trav-
ersed 600 miles, without any of my household being ill a single day, —
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 71
so salubrious are our mountains. It was time, however, for peace to be
made, and our endurance, our courage and our clothes were getting worn
out. Finally, in May, 1782, I returned to my plantation on the Saluda,
which two old servants had not been able to protect from pillage. Great
was their joy to see us come back in good health, and with an increase in
the family of seven children, two white and five black, — together with
54 young cattle."
I wonder if the annals of South Carolina contain any record
of this patriarchal wandering of Mr. Bull with his heifers and
mares. Doubtless St. John found it in print somewhere, and
translated it, along with his accounts of Hell Gate and Yale
College, into his colloquial French. It seems that when his
daughter Fanny was in London with her husband, who was
negotiating the treaty of Amiens, she tried to get this book of
her father accepted by the English trade. She wrote him
(October 6,1800): —
" Several booksellers here showed great eagerness to undertake a
translation of your ' Journey into Upper Pennsylvania,' — some of
them after only hearing the title and the author ; others after reading
various sheets of the manuscript which we showed them. I am sorry
to tell you, however, that they soon changed their opinion when they
realized it was not an actual journey but a purely philosophical (ideal)
work; which, however well written, was not of a sort to succeed in
England."
It was, in fact, partly real and partly ideal, but very inter-
esting, and, I doubt not, gave Chateaubriand hints for his
American novels, which made so much stir soon after. How-
ever, it was never translated, and few of the Pennsylvanians,
Virginians, and New Yorkers named in it ever read it. The
New Haven professors ought to read the account of their
college, and of the wonderful dinner-parties of Tutor Wood-
hull. As an observer, St. John was quite as vivacious, if not
always so exact as Thoreau.
This work, prepared for publication just before Washing-
ton's death, had been dedicated to him, then in retirement at
Mount Vernon ; and the epistle of dedication recounted the
various times at which the author had seen him in the ascend-
ing steps of his noble career, — a deputy from Virginia to the
Continental Congress of 1774, — chosen generalissimo in 1775,
— and laying down his great command in November, 1783, just
72 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
after St. John had returned to New York from France, as con-
sul at the ports of New York and New Haven. This friend of
Washington said, in a note to his first volume of the work
published in 1801, and never yet translated: —
" I witnessed the general joy, the outbursts of delight which were
occasioned by his modest triumphal entrance into New York City,
November 25, 1783. I saw his humanity towards the loyalists, whose
arrangements for departure were not yet finished ; I admired, as so
many did, his moderation, his affability, the wise measures he took to
soften the bitterness of party spirit among opponents who, after a sep-
aration of seven years, found themselves reunited. I shared with the
citizens the sorrow, the regrets, almost the consternation which followed
his announcement that his departure for Virginia was fixed for the 4th
of December. I mingled with them and with the officers of his army,
assembled there for the last farewells. Never can I forget the last
words which he addressed to his companions in arms, from whom he
was now to part forever ; never the impression made on me by the
imposing dignity of his countenance, and the tone of his voice, affected
by the emotion which he strove to suppress."
St. John also printed in the same volume parts of the letter
Washington wrote to him in reply to congratulations on his
election to the presidency (April 10, 1789), saying: —
" A combination of circumstances, a chain of events which I could
not foresee, have made it indispensably necessary, as I find, to embark
once more on the stormy sea of public affairs. I need not tell you how
much this resolution is Opposed to my wishes and my dearest inclina-
tions ; all my friends who know me are convinced of this, I trust. If
I accept the presidency, it is with the purest intentions. I appeal to
the great Searcher of all hearts for this ; He knows whether any object,
the most flattering imaginable, or the enticement of any advantage,
however seductive, or finally any desire for fame, however easy of
attainment, would have decided me, at my age and in my condition,
to abandon the quiet path of private life. Assuredly not ; I know too
well what happiness is, and the price we pay for it. But if the people
of these States believe my services can still be useful to the public, I
will give them, since they require it. A hope of this kind can alone
repay me for the many sacrifices I must make, in leaving my fireside,
and abandoning my repose."
A portion of this letter, which St. John did not print, is
given by his biographer and descendant, showing that St.
John had translated for Washington the favorable accounts of
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 73
the early days of the French Revolution, with which Wash-
ington then sympathized. He wrote to St. John at New
York : —
" I am truly glad to see by the translations you have been good
enough to send me, that a profound change is taking place in the politi-
cal opinions of the French people. It would seem that the American
Revolution — or else the enlightenment peculiar to this age of the
world — has opened the eyes of nearly all the nations of Europe.
The spirit of liberty gains ground everywhere ; which is a real occa-
sion for congratulation among all the friends of humanity."
The reason why St. John did not print this in the consulate
of Napoleon is evident ; he no longer looked on the French
Revolution, by which he and his friends had greatly suffered,
with the admiration felt in 1789. Indeed, in quoting some
remarks of his friends of 1800, advising against publishing
any more American letters just then, he makes one of them
say : —
" Hardly escaped from the chaos and the horrors of one of the most
amazing revolutions that ever deluged earth with blood, — still, troubled
and alarmed at those decrees of exile, confiscation, slavery and oppro-
brium, from which, as by miracle, the happy genius and courage of a
young hero of 31 has just set us free at last, — what interest can we
take in the progress of civilization in a country so distant as America?
Wait, then, till the new sun which already illumines the horizon, has
reached its meridian ; till the Washington of France has had time to
develop in civil administration the talents he has displayed at the head
of armies."
This faith in the disinterested character of Bonaparte was
common about 1800 ; and his coming to a treaty of peace with
England, for which St. John's son-in-law Otto had just paved
the way, was an evidence of his good nature.
The new book was, as I have said, partly a philosophic," or
ideal, and partly actual, — a compilation from various writers
(St. John included) on the conditions of life in America. With
this was mingled something that seems fiction, — the story
of a scion of the royal family of Braganza, who became
a monk, and had many adventures in Portugal, Holland,
and America. It is always a little hard to say when St. John
is adhering to the literal truth, though he had almost the
10
74 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
skill of Defoe in making fiction seem like reality. His
own account of his reason for writing his first book, the fa-
mous " Letters of an American Farmer," appears in a letter
to Mme. de Houdetot.
The ten years between St. John's landing in France, in
1790, and his beginning to print his second work in 1800,
were troubled and dangerous years for him and most of his
earlier friends. Unable to get an extended leave of absence
from his consulship, he tried for a pension upon giving up the
post ; but his patrons were not only out of power, — they were
exiles or prisoners, or had died under the wrath of the French
people, so long oppressed and persecuted, against the " aristo-
crats." The Due de Rochefoucauld had been stoned to death
at Gisors ; Liancourt had fled to England ; and the once power-
ful and popular Lafayette, whose reception in America was
enthusiastically described by St. John in his third volume of
1787, had fled from France and was basely imprisoned in an
imperial dungeon. His son, George Washington Lafayette,
was met at Mount Vernon by Mr. Latrobe in July, 1797,
where he was the emigrant guest of his godfather, while
Lafayette languished in prison. Even Otto, who had been
secure in the foreign office under Danton's clerk, Deforgues,
was himself imprisoned in 1794, and unable to extend protec-
tion to his suspected father-in-law. At this crisis St. John
found friends in the prosperous banking house of Colonel
Swan of Boston, at whose noisy counting-room he used to
write his letters, under feigned names and dates, to his sons,
" Ally," at Hamburg, in a branch of Swan's bank, and Louis,
whom in this year (1794) he had sent off to America to make
his way as a pioneer farmer, like his father, thirty years before.
From the autumn of 1794 till April, 1796, St. John himself lived
near his son in Altoona, a suburb of Hamburg,- — James Mon-
roe, who reached Paris as American envoy in the summer of
1794, finding himself too much embarrassed by his delicate
situation, after the downfall of Robespierre, to repay to Otto
and St. John the services they had rendered him, as they
thought.
Returning to Paris in the spring of 1796, St. John found
he had been elected a non-resident member of the French
Academy, in one of its sections, and met with the members
occasionally. Later in that year he joined with Otto in the
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 75
purchase of a small estate called Lesches, near Meaux and
the river Marne ; and he recalled Louis from America to take
part in the farm labors there, while St. John himself remained
in Normandy with his aged father, the Marquis, who did not
die till 1799, at the age of ninety-two.
At Lesches, which Louis after a while left to join the
French armies in Italy and Switzerland, St. John edited his
second work, already cited and quoted ; with his son William
Alexander (married in 1798 to a lady of Normandy) residing
on the estate for a time ; while his son-in-law Otto had gone
to Berlin as secretary to Sieyes, ambassador to Prussia. The
task of printing his voluminous work was a vexatious one, and
an evidence of this is among the manuscripts in the Boston
Public Library, where I found last year (in French) these two
autograph notes from St. John to his publisher, Citizen Mara-
dan, bookseller, Rue Pavee S. Andre-des-Arts, No. 16, finding
fault with the printer, Crapelet, and dated " 28 Brumaire," —
I suppose, 1800. They ran thus: —
" I am in receipt, Citizen, of the nine sheets of the impression, which
you have just sent me, and also of your letter of the 25th. Of these
nine sheets you had already given seven for M. Otto nearly two months
ago ; the two others were revised (comparees). It is clear, then, that
there has been a total interruption of the printing during these two
months ; since, if you had had more sheets you would have sent them.
On the other hand, Citizen Crapelet cannot say that he has ceased to
work for lack of copy, since at the same period I sent to Paris four chap-
ters with their notes, as well as the 18 first chapters, which are very con-
siderable, — also the cours preliminaire, the dedication and the notes
thereto. This interruption having passed under your eye, I do not
wish to speak of it, since it concerns you more than me. . . . The 3d
volume will have at least 26 sheets (of 16 pages each). As to Citizen
Tardieu (who engraved the maps and cuts), M. Bonfils has been to
see him. I will correct the maps as soon as I have received
them."
Later he wrote to Maradan : —
" The six copies received. I learn with pleasure that the work will
at last be announced. I yesterday saw M. Laboly, who bade me ask
you to send him a copy to-day, seeing that the Decade day comes soon,
he would have it before then. He is going to speak to Messrs. Suard
and Fontane, and is much disposed to think well of the book. He is a
warm friend, who ought not to be neglected."
76 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
After Otto's recall from England, by an intrigue of Talley-
rand, once more in the foreign office under Napoleon, the
First Consul sent him to Bavaria, to represent him in that then
friendly country, at Munich. St. John, as already said, joined
his son-in-law there in 1806, and at once, as in other countries
where he dwelt or visited, fell into good society and saw
famous persons. Maximilian the Elector, who had made him-
self king, told him with what pleasure he had read the
" American Farmer's Letters " and invited him to dinner. It
was not in the court circle, however, but among the men of
science, with whom Count Rumford had lived familiarly years
before, that St. John found himself most at home. He ad-
mired the aptitude of the Bavarians for art and the sci-
ences, in which they have since become so distinguished.
" There is here in Munich," he wrote, " an endowment of
talent, which only needs a corresponding endowment of re-
search to show itself highly productive. I have taken the
liberty to speak to the king about this as often as with pro-
priety I could do it." The results are now seen everywhere
in Bavaria.
Although Count Rumford had left Munich long before St.
John resided there, he was living and in Paris, where he had
married the termagant widow of Lavoisier, the French chemist.
In September, 1809, after St. John's return to Paris, or rather
to Sarcelles, he wrote to his son's widow some gossip of Paris
concerning this ill-assorted pair. The Bavarian envoy had
dined with the Otto family the Sunday before, and St. John
writes : —
" Somehow or other, in a rambling conversation, mention was made
of the quarrel, — what am I saying ? the open war of M. Rumford
with Mme. Lavoisier, his spouse, — a war that has long been the inex-
haustible source of gossip for the salons of Paris. Nobody better than
the Bavarian envoy to speak knowingly about it ; for he, jointly with
M. Marbois, has been the pacificator of the endless and scandalous
quarrels of the two belligerents. At last peace was made. They had
separated, these two beings who never should have united. The strife
had reached such a degree of violence that Count Fouche, the Grand
Inquisitor of the Empire, felt compelled to take cognizance of it ; and
but for the Bavarian envoy's intervention, his iron flail might have
descended on the husband's head. This Americo-Anglo-Bavarian not
being able to show in any of the upper circles of Paris since the separa-
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 77
tion, prudently resolved to retire to Auteuil ; where, like a storm-tost
barque just come into port, he was enjoying the rest and quiet his
feeble health greatly needed. His friends were congratulating him on
it, when it was learned that his former wife had just hired the house
adjoining, with the intention of fuming the recent truce into a durable
peace. She asked that, as the first base of the great work, she might
have permission to open a gateway between their two adjoining gar-
dens. Just then, alarmed at some distant rumblings, Mme. C. resolved
to go back at once to Paris. The sequel in my next number, — or
rather at the first dinner Fanny and I shall eat at the Bavarian
legation."
The " sequel " has disappeared, or was never written. Count
Rumford, whose fine bronze statue stands in one of the streets
at Munich, outlived St. John by a year, dying in 1814. His
daughter, the Countess Sarah, lived and died in Concord,
New Hampshire, the home of her mother, the first wife of
Colonel Thompson and the daughter of Parson Walker.
Returning to France in 1809, St. John renewed his acquaint-
ance with Mme. de Houdetot, and with Volney, Joel Bar-
low, and other ante-Revolutionary friends. By this time, too,
his granddaughter had grown up and was soon married to
a rising man in public affairs, the Baron Pelet de la Lozere,
then attached to the Council of State (born 1785, died 1871),
and afterwards prefect, deputy, peer, and twice minister of
state under Louis Philippe. This marriage occurred in 1812,
and proved a fortunate one ; but at that very time occurred
the disastrous retreat from Russia, in which Louis St. John,
the son, nearly lost his life. He had long been in Napoleon's
army, — in Italy under Massena, and elsewhere, — and now,
in 1812-1813, he was subjected to the horrors of the battle of
Beresina and the winter retreat to Wilna in Poland. Writ-
ing to his father from Leipzig (March 10, 1813), Louis said : —
" I am quite well, and all my wounds are healed. I can only thank
the Almighty for having so happily escaped the terrible destiny that
seemed to await me, especially when I had been stripped by the
Cossacks at Wilna. I was in such a state of misery and weakness that
I could neither fly nor fight ; and I was incapable of enduring their
harsh treatment, had I remained in the power of those barbarians.
No wonder I was so reduced ; I had passed many icy nights in the
open air without rest or sleep, in fear of freezing. If I closed my
eyes for an instant, I opened them without being refreshed, and usually
78 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
was waked by hunger. You know, father, that hunger, like sleep, is
irresistible ; you had occasion to find this out in the American wilder-
ness. I was so horribly wretched, so covered with vermin, my beard
of such a length, that I had only a distant resemblance to a human
being, as some of my comrades have" since told me. For all that, I
was never so happy in my life as when I escaped from Wilna. I
dragged myself along, half-frozen, without gloves, sticking my hands
in my pockets, the only place where they could get a bit of warmth.
In such a disaster, everybody thinks only of himself. Had I fallen on
the high road, nobody would have stooped to pick me up ; and probably
I showed myself just as indifferent towards more than one who needed
my aid. On the march or in bivouac we were so exasperated by
suffering that every one shied off to hide a bad crust of bread that he
was secretly gnawing."
When the young officer reached headquarters and communi-
cated his safety, his father said, " This resurrection of Louis
has made me ten years younger"; but St. John was already
near his end. He died at Sarcelles, in Count Otto's house,
November 12, 1813 ; and, by a continuance of those errors of
date which clung to his career through life, he was entered in
his death-certificate as eighty-one years old, when in fact he
lacked two months and a half of being seventy-nine. Perhaps
it was this certificate or his obituary in Paris, which caused
some of his biographers to speak of him as born in 1731;
others say, 1738 ; the actual date was January 31, 1735, as
stated at the beginning of this paper. His obituary in the
" Journal of the Empire " called him eighty-two and spoke
of him as " modest even to humility." So he was, and it is
rarely a French quality.
At intervals during the century and a quarter since St. John
began to be known as an author, under a disguised name, he
has been recognized for what he essentially was, — an artless
writer, in spite of his many innocent arts to escape personal
annoyance ; and as true a philanthropist, though not so amply
gifted with genius and political wisdom, as his friends Frank-
lin and Jefferson. That singularly rare virtue, unselfish
gratitude, was conspicuous in him ; and we should hardly
have heard of his sufferings on the frontier, in the brutal prison
of New York, or among the sans culottes of Paris, were it not
for the effusion of his thanks to his Quaker friends in Pennsyl-
vania, his loyalist and truly loyal friend William Seaton of
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 79
New York, and the grandees of France who put him in the
way of what was the height of his ambition, — to render useful
service to his two countries, America and France, and to
benefit the mass of mankind. In doing this, and almost with-
out intending it, he became every now and then an admirable
writer. He saw man and Nature clearly and lovingly ; he de-
scribed what he saw in the first language that occurred to him ;
and as this was untutored, and never imitated, it often had the
effect of genius. According to the receipt for good writing
which John Brown's " Paddy " unconsciously gave, St. John in
his diaries and letters was " afther others, and niver afther
himself at all, at all." If he did not, like Brown, rise in high
moments into true eloquence, or the conciseness of Thucydides,
it was the fault of his two vernaculars, — the diffuse English
of the eighteenth century, and the late acquired French prose,
which is more favorable to the sententiousness of wit than that
of profound wisdom. But even so, his French may outlast, in
its best examples, the posing rhetoric of Chateaubriand and
all but the highest flights of Danton and Mirabeau. Far in-
ferior in sustained elegance and descriptive charm to the prose
of St. Pierre, it has now and then all the unforeseen grace and
native strength which authors by profession so often lack.
In the moral virtues St. John seems to have been a model,
which can be seldom said of Frenchmen who have not sin-
cerely devoted themselves to religion. His descendant and
biographer, Robert St. John de Crevecceur, a Roman Catholic,
says of him : —
"He believed firmly in God and the immortality of the soul ; his poetic
and enthusiastic spirit adored the Creator in his works ; but a long resi-
dence among American Protestants had detached him from the true
Church, and the railing skepticism of the Houdetot circle at last ex-
tinguished the faith of his youth. . . . Profoundly honorable, and de-
voted to his country, — intelligent and practical in talent, unwearied in
bringing things to the use and love of the people ; in literature sincere
and of good intention; he added to the good fortune of achieving some
good in the world, a merit, very rare among his contemporaries, of never
doing any harm."
This is rather reserved praise, but it is also deserved, as much
of our encomium of our ancestors oftentimes is not, — their
chief merit in our eyes being to have made room for ourselves.
80 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
St. John has made them better known to their descendants ; and
if he has complimented them too highly, as his countrymen
sometimes said, it was through his inexhaustible optimism and
good nature, which neither the French Revolution nor the ap-
proach of old age could quite overcome. This did not prevent
him from seeing that evils existed and that they proceeded
from evil men. In quoting his account of our backwoodsmen,
— " frontiersmen " he calls them, — I shall condense his Eng-
lish pages, and not have recourse here to the later written
French version, which in some respects softened the picture.
Certainly it did so with regard to slavery in South Carolina,
his censure of which will presently be quoted.
St. John could not resist the traveller's temptation to exag-
gerate ; but he was clear-headed and practical, and so were
his Americans. Take his description of the frontiersman, and
see who of the ten thousand lecturers and journalists and
novelists of our time could better it, — the type persisting
with but slight variations till now, although the frontier of
civilization has receded more than a thousand miles.
" Near the great woods in the districts last settled men seem to be
placed still farther beyond the reach of government. How can it per-
vade every corner? Driven there by misfortunes, necessity of begin-
nings, desire of acquiring large tracts of land, idleness, frequent want
of economy, ancient debts, — the reunion of such people does not afford
a very pleasing spectacle. When discord, want of unity and friendship,
when either drunkenness or idleness prevails in such remote districts,
contention, inactivity and wretchedness must ensue. The few magis-
trates they have are in general little better than the rest. They are
often in a perfect state of war, — that of man against man, sometimes
decided by blows, sometimes by means of the law, — that of man
against every wild inhabitant of these venerable woods. These men
appear to be no better than carnivorous animals of a superior rank,
living on the flesh of wild animals when they can catch them, and when
they are not able they subsist on grain. There, remote from the power
of example and check of shame, many families exhibit the most hideous
parts of our society [meaning, civilization]."
In spite of the awkwardness of the expressions (for St. John
did not write the best English, though often a most effective
kind), this is a picture of the backwoodsman, with an explana-
tion of him. Here is no observable optimism, nor in what
follows : —
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 81
" Eating wild meat, whatever you may think, tends to alter the tem-
per : though all the proof I can adduce is, that I have seen it. Having
no place of worship to resort to, what little society this might afford is
denied them. As Europeans and new-made Indians, they contract the
vices of both. Hunting is but a licentious, idle life, and if it does not
always pervert good dispositions, yet when it is united with bad luck it
leads to want, and want stimulates that propensity to rapacity and injus-
tice too natural in needy men."
St. John visited Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina,
before the Revolution ; he had a distaste for the lawyers there,
and was shocked at the slavery. He said : —
"The three principal classes a/e lawyers, planters and merchants;
this is the province which has afforded to lawyers their richest spoils,
for nothing can exceed their wealth, power and influence. No planta-
tion is secured, no title is good, no will is valid but what they dictate,
regulate and approve. The whole mass of provincial property is be-
come tributary to them ; they are more properly law-givers than inter-
preters of the law, and have united in most of the provinces the skill
and dexterity of the scribe with the power and ambition of the prince.
Who can tell where this may lead in a future day ? In another century
the law may possess in the north what now the church possesses in Peru
and Mexico. . . .
" The planters get rich ; so raw, so unexperienced am I in this mode of
life, that were I to be possessed of a plantation and my slaves treated as
in general they are here, I never could rest in peace. I should be
thinking of the barbarous treatment they met with on shipboard, and
finally delivered over to the severities of the whippers and the excessive
labors of the field. The planters, bred in the midst of slaves, learn
from the example of their parents to despise them, and seldom con-
ceive, either from religion or philanthropy, any ideas that tend to make
their fate less calamitous. Nothing but terrors and punishments are
presented to them. Death is denounced if they run away ; horrid
delaceration if they speak with their native freedom, while even those
punishments often fail of their purpose."
He then gives an instance of shocking punishment which he
says he saw, but which he has exaggerated. As to the general
facts, however, he is confirmed by Elkanah Watson, who was
there soon after, and by Jefferson in his " Notes on Virginia."
He modified this censure in his French edition, because, he
said, the success of our Revolution had made slavery milder.
In contrast to this painful censure of a state of things long
11
82 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Feb.
since passed away, let me cite what has been till now one of
the best known of St. John's English writings, — his account
of the Quakers of Nantucket, their ownership of the island,
and the simplicity of their habits, in the years before Nelson,
then a young lieutenant, made the whale-fishing and candle-
making sandbank in the midst of the Atlantic a neutral
domain in the War of the Revolution. After describing Nan-
tucket at great length, with an excellent map of its irregular-
ities and peculiarities of shape and name, and another good
map of Martha's Vineyard, from which Dr. Franklin's Folger
ancestors migrated to Nantucket in the seventeenth century,
St. John has this to say of the island Quakers, — their manners,
industry, piety, and visiting habits : —
" Idleness is the most heinous sin in Nantucket ; an idle man would
soon be pointed out as an object of compassion ; for idleness is considered
another word for want and hunger. The custom of incessant visiting
has infected every one. The house is always cleaned before the women
set out, and with peculiar alacrity they pursue their intended visit,
which consists of a social chat, a dish of tea, and a hearty supper.
When the good man of the house returns from his labor he peaceably
goes after his wife and brings her home ; meanwhile the young fellows,
equally vigilant, easily find out which is the most convenient house, and
there they assemble with the girls of the neighborhood. 'Instead of
cards, musical instruments or songs, they relate stories of their whaling
voyages, their various sea adventures and the different coasts and
people they have visited. Puddings, pies, and custards never fail to be
produced on such occasions ; for I believe there never were any people
in their circumstances who live so well, even to superabundance. Thus
these young people sit and talk, and divert themselves as well as they
can ; they often all talk and laugh together, but they are happy. This
lasts until the father and mother return, when all retire to their respec-
tive homes, — the men reconducting the partners of their affections. "
In this, as in other things, he praises the islanders, and pic-
tures them truly. A writer describing Nantucket in 1807,
while St. John was still alive, but after he had returned to
France, said : —
"The 'Letters of an American Farmer' afford the most interesting
and entertaining account of this island. However, two objections may
be made. His pictures, though striking likenesses, are always flattering
likenesses ; every face glows with the blush of sensibility, and is irradi-
ated with the beams of happiness. The other objection is that he is
1906.] ST. JOHN DE CREVECCEUR. 83
frequently erroneous in minute and unimportant circumstances. He
gives the contour and character of the face exactly, though in too favor-
able a light; but he makes strange mistakes in the sleeve of a coat or
the strap of a shoe. With good nature enough to pardon these two
faults the reader will peruse the Letters of St. John with perpetual
delight."
St. John further contrasts the two islands with each other : —
" The people of Nantucket are indebted for all their advantages not
only to their natural genius, but to the poverty of their soil. As a
proof, look at the Vineyard, their neighboring island, which is inhabited
by a set of people as keen and sagacious as themselves. But their soil
being in general extremely fertile, they have fewer navigators ; though
equally well situated for the fishing business."
St. John lived to see the whale-fishery of Nantucket and
New Bedford introduced into France under the auspices of the
French government ; but it did not attain there the success
that New England found in it.
In preparing this account of a man too little known, I have
been much indebted to Mr. S. O. Todd, of St. Johnsbury
Centre, through whom the American public, by the aid of Dr.
Robert Turner, of Paris, have been brought into communi-
cation with the representatives of the St. John family in Paris.
These are the widow of Robert St. John, Mme. Marie de
Crevecceur, and her three children, of whom the eldest is
Lionel de Crevecceur, through whose kindness the engraving
of Pine Hill farm has been obtained.
Other papers which had been prepared for presentation at
this meeting were postponed on account of the lateness of
the hour.
Incidental remarks were made during the meeting by the
President and Messrs. James De Normandie, Gamaliel
Bradford, Franklin B. Sanborn, .Samuel A. Green, and
Melville M. Bigelow.
A new serial, containing the record of the December meeting,
and the Catalogue of the Waterston Collection were ready for
delivery at this meeting.
84 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
MARCH MEETING, 1906.
The stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 8th instant,
at three o'clock, P. M. ; the President in the chair. The rec-
ord of the February meeting was read and approved ; and
the Librarian and Cabinet-Keeper submitted the customary
reports.
Mr. William Endicott was elected a Resident Member, and
Mr. Andrew C. McLaughlin, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a Cor-
responding Member.
While the Committee to collect the ballots was passing the
box, the President spoke substantially as follows : —
Having recently presented to the Society a volume of Cam-
bridge and Harvard University views of some interest and
value, it occurred to me to give with it to our Librarian an
impression from a book-plate I have recently had engraved.
Possibly the plate might lend interest to the volume; and in
any event it would indicate the source whence it came. In do-
ing so, I called Dr. Green's attention to the plate in question,
and gave him its history. He was interested ; and suggested
that it would perhaps be well for me to communicate to the
Society what I had told him concerning this plate, that it
might find a place in our Proceedings. I accordingly so do.
The plate, of which I herewith submit an impression, was
devised by John Adams not long after he put his signature
to the Treaty of Paris. The independence of the thirteen
American colonies was thereby established. The arms are
those of the Boylston family, from which John Adams was
descended on the mother's side. The following somewhat im-
perfect description of the plate is given by Mr. Charles Dexter
Allen. 1
" Armorial. The Boylston arms. The shield surrounded by a gar-
ter on which the motto is given, — Libertatem amicitiam retinebis et
Jidem. The whole design surrounded by thirteen stars."
1 American Book-plates, p. 161.
f- W < W 1
(• /■
-yu/a
vm#
1905
86 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
" On the fourth of July, 1776,
He pledged his Life, Fortune and Sacred Honor
To the INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY.
On the third of September, 1783,
He affixed his seal to the definitive treaty with Great Britain
Which acknowledged that independence
And consummated the redemption of his pledge.''
The seal used by him on this occasion was held by John
Adams as one of his most precious possessions, and trans-
mitted as an heirloom. Given by John Adams to John
Quincy Adams, and by him to Charles Francis Adams, this
Treaty of Paris seal is now in the possession of the widow
of the last J. Q. Adams, who died August 14, 1894. The
device on the seal is simply the Boylston arms, as they appear
within the garter on the book-plate, — the armorial shield,
surmounted by the lion bearing a cross, — Leo pro Deo. The
emblematic thirteen stars surrounding the garter, the garter
and the legend from Tacitus, were subsequently adopted in
the book-plate as commemorative of the use made of the
seal in connection with the crowning mercy in the life of
him whose book-plate it was.
The original John Adams book-plate was engraved by Car-
penter in London in 1785 or 1786. It cannot now be found.
The significance and motive of the design are, however,
obvious. Among American book-plates it has accordingly an
exceptional historical interest. J. Q. Adams devised and
used, first and last, several book-plates ; one of which is given
by Allen (p. 186). But, curiously enough, while John Adams's
son retained in the plate he ordinarily used part of his father's
motto from Tacitus, he omitted the thirteen stars which gave
to that motto its historical significance. The plate usually
found in the volumes of the J. Q. Adams library is, therefore,
comparatively speaking, meaningless.
Mr. Charles C. Smith said that the memorial to Congress
for the preservation of the frigate " Constitution " had been
presented in the Senate by our associate Mr. Lodge, and that
at Mr. Lodge's request it was printed at length in the Con-
gressional Record, with the accompanying documents.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 87
In accordance with the By-Laws the following committees
were appointed, to report at the Annual Meeting; to nomi-
nate officers, Messrs. James F. Hunnewell, Arthur Lord, and
Charles K. Bolton ; to examine the Treasurer's accounts,
Messrs. Thomas Minns and S. Lothrop Thorndike; to examine
the Library and Cabinet, Messrs. Don Gleason Hill, Bliss
Perry, and Henry G. Pearson.
Mr. Henry W. Haynes communicated the memoir of the
Hon. Mellen Chamberlain which he had been appointed to pre-
pare for publication in the Proceedings ; and the President
communicated the memoirs which he had prepared of the
Hon. Theodore Lyman and Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr.
Mr. Thomas L. Livermore read the following paper : —
The Appomattox Campaign : An Examination of the Question
ivhether a Captured Letter of General Lee's disclosed his Plan of
Retreat to General Grant. 1
The Memoir of Jefferson Davis by his wife (Vol. II. p. 595)
contains a narrative by General G. W. C. Lee of the en-
counter between himself and other Confederate officers who
were captured at Sailor's Creek April 6, 1865, and General
Benham of the Union army. These Confederate officers
were being conducted to the rear, and the encounter is said
to have taken place on the way to Petersburg. The narrator
says : —
" General Benham began talking to General Ewell in a loud tone of
voice which could be distinctly heard by all around. I heard General
Benham say, among other things, that General Weitzel had found
soon after his entrance into Richmond a letter from General Lee
giving the condition of the Army of Northern Virginia, and what
he proposed to do should it become necessary to withdraw from the
lines before Richmond and Petersburg, and that the letter was immedi-
ately sent to General Grant. In answer to some doubt expressed
by General Ewell or someone else, General Benham replied : ' Oh,
there is no doubt about the letter, for I saw it myself.' I received
the impression, at the time or afterwards, that this letter was a confi-
dential communication to the Secretary of War in answer to a reso-
lution of the Confederate Congress asking for information in 1865.
1 Abbreviations : N. & L. = Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America,
1861-1865, by Thomas L. Livermore. W. R. = War of the Rebellion, Official
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, cited by serial number. Va.
Camp. = The Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65, by Andrew H. Humphreys.
88 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
When I mentioned this statement to General [Robert E.] Lee some
time afterward, the latter said : ' This accounts for the enemy's pursuit.
The first day after we left the lines he seemed to be entirely at sea
with regard to our movements ; after that, although I never worked so
hard in my life to withdraw our armies in safety, he displayed more
energy, skill, and judgment in his movements than I ever knew him
to display before.' "
The inference is that both generals understood that the
letter in General Grant's hands disclosed the destination
and routes which Lee had planned for his army before the
campaign opened, that this plan was followed, and that it
was through the knowledge of it given to him by the letter
that Grant so effectually directed the movements of his army.
This interpretation is confirmed by another narrative of these
incidents recited' in a recent letter from a Southern gentleman
to our associate Dr. Rhodes with reference to the opinion ex-
pressed in his history that in the campaign Grant outgener-
alled Lee. The letter runs as follows : —
"Some years ago when I was the guest of General Custis Lee — then
his father's successor as President of Washington and Lee University —
he told me the following story. ' At Appomattox on the 9th of April,
1865, when the officers of the lately opposed armies were exchangiug
greetings, a Federal general said jubilantly to a Confederate general:
,; You could n't escape. We had you bagged. We knew every move
you were going to make." Asked what he meant, he replied to this
effect: " When the Federal army entered Richmond, Mr. Jefferson
Davis's house was one of the first objectives of the men, and a soldier
picked up in his private office a paper which proved to be of great im-
portance. It was a communication from General R. E. Lee addressed
to the President of the Southern Confederacy and giving, in obedience
to a resolution of the Confederate Congress, a detailed statement of his
plans in the event of his being obliged to evacuate Richmond, his line
of retreat, his points of concentration, the roads to be followed by the
several corps and by the ammunition and wagon trains. The impor-
tance of this document was instantly recognized, and accordingly it
was sent at once and in haste by a special messenger to General Grant,
who knew well how to take advantage of such valuable information."
Several years after the war General Custis Lee for the first time told
his father this story. They were going over some of his papers at
the time. When the gray-haired veteran heard the story, the paper
which he had been reading dropped from his hand, and he exclaimed :
* Now for the first time I understand why I could not extricate my
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 89
army. I never worked harder in my life than I did then, but it was
all in, vain. Every move I made was checkmated, the enemy was
always on my path.'"
The writer of the letter adds that this event explains General
Lee's failure to make good his retreat from Richmond.
Although the scene of the encounter with the Union gen-
eral is different in the two accounts, they undoubtedly relate to
the same incident. It could not have occurred at Appomat-
tox, because Generals Ewell and Custis Lee were captured at
Sailor's Creek three days before the surrender at Appomattox,
but it is quite conceivable that the error as to place was due
to a fault of memory in the letter writer.
In the Appomattox campaign Grant, March 29 to April 9,
1865, with a force of 115,000 effectives manoeuvred and
drove out of their works in front of Richmond and Peters-
burg a force of about 52,000 Confederates, 1 and then, with
about 72,000 2 men, pursuing for about eighty miles the re-
mainder of the Confederate army, estimated at about 39,000, 3
captured, dispersed, or put hors du combat on the way about
10,000, and finally surrounded and caused the surrender of
28,231,? all that were left except 2,400 cavalry who got away. 5
More men have been captured by siege of fortified places
which they have occupied to defend, but in modern war no
army has ever captured, by surrounding, so many men in full
flight. It is of interest to ascertain whether General Grant
was aided to this result by the good fortune of having in
hand the plan of retreat prearranged by his great adversary.
One naturally turns to Grant's account of the campaign for
mention of it, but neither in his contemporary despatches,
his report of the campaign, nor his Memoirs is there a sugges-
tion of it. Every indication found in them is to the contrary.
Neither is there mention of it in Badeau's Military History of
i N. & L. 136, 137.
2 95 W. R. 389, 391. This includes only the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Corps,
two-thirds of the Twenty-Fourth and one-third of the Twenty-Fifth Corps and the
cavalry, less losses in these organizations March 29 to April 2. (See 95 W. R.
1056-1065; Va. Camp. 332-353.) Here and later the number of "effectives" is
computed from the number " present for duty " by the rule in N. & L. 69.
3 N. & L. 136, 137. From the strength of March 29 deduction is made of
12,000 for prisoners and 3,000 for estimated killed and wounded (maximum),
March 29- April 2. (See 97 W. R. 449 ; Va. Camp. 332-353 ; N. & L. 136, 137.)
4 95 W. R. 1279.
e Ibid. 1303, 1304.
12
90 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Grant, Swinton's Campaign of the Army of the Potomac,
General Humphreys's Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65, or any
other history of the campaign which I have seen. Evidence
of a negative kind against it is found in the fact that General
Custis Lee's statement, above quoted from Mrs. Davis, which
she says (p. 597) u was requested of him by Major Walthall,
then at Beauvoir with Mr. Davis," is not mentioned by the
latter in his book, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate
Government," although he relates (Vol. II. p. 648) that dur-
ing a personal conference which General Lee held with him
when it had become apparent that Richmond must be aban-
doned, the plan was formulated of retiring to Danville and
joining with J. E. Johnston's troops to attack Sherman before
Grant could come to his relief.
Human recollection is fallible, and possibly General Benham
may not have intended to convey the precise impression which
General Custis Lee retained; but the question whether Gen-
eral Benham's vaporing was in fact based on the finding of
a letter from General Lee should be examined. A careful
reading of the despatches in the Official Records published
by the War Department has disclosed the following: 1 April 5,
C. A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, telegraphing from
Jefferson Davis's house in Richmond, says that General Weit-
zel occupied Richmond after daylight April 3. April 5, at
9.30 p.m., Secretary Stanton telegraphed Dana that he had
directed General Weitzel, who commanded the forces in Rich-
mond, to secure all the letters, papers, and correspondence in
the post-office and other departments at Richmond, and directed
Dana to see Weitzel and take charge of the papers and trans-
mit them to the War Department. April 6, at noon, Dana,
acknowledging the latter telegram, telegraphed : —
" The records and papers of the Department and of Congress were
removed before the evacuation ; and during the firing the Capitol was
ransacked and the documents there were scattered. The letter of Lee
which I telegraphed yesterday was accidentally picked up by an
officer."
This letter, which appears in the records, was General
Robert E. Lee's reply to a letter of Secretary of War
Breckenridge, 2 in which the latter says : —
i 97 W. R. 574, 575, 593. 2 96 W. R. 1292.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 91
" My reflections upon our recent conversations induce me to request
that you will give me fully your opinions upon the military situation.
Since I assumed control of the War Department, a more extended
knowledge has convinced me that our condition is full of peril and that
it demands united counsels and prompt action. It seems to me that
the legislative department of the Government, if not already fully
advised, should be thoroughly informed of the present posture of affairs
in order that its wisdom may cooperate in advising whatever further
measures shall seem necessary to rescue the Confederacy from its
present danger."
General Lee's reply was as follows: 1 —
" I have received to-night your letter of this date requesting my
opinions upon the military condition of the country. It must be appar-
ent to everyone that it is full of peril and requires prompt action. My
correspondence with the Department will show the extreme difficulty
under which we have labored during the past year to keep this army
furnished with necessary supplies. This difficulty is increased, and it
seems almost impossible to maintain our present position with the
means at the disposal of the Government. In our former operations
in this State a large portion of our forage and subsistence was collected
by the staff officers connected with the army by the use of transporta-
tion, and we were not confined to what the several departments could
supply. The country within reach of our present position has been
nearly or quite exhausted and we are now dependent upon what those
departments can provide. The respective chiefs can best inform you
of the means at their command, but from all the information I possess
the only practical relief is in the generous contribution of the people to
our necessities, and that is limited by the difficulties of transportation,
whatever may be the extent of this willingness and ability, of which I
am unable to form an accurate opinion.
" Unless the men and animals can be subsisted the army cannot be
kept together and our present lines must be abandoned. Nor can it
be moved to any other position where it can operate to advantage
without provisions to enable it to move in a body.
" The difficulties attending the payment and clothing of the troops,
though great, are not so pressing, and would be relieved in a measure
by military success. The same is true as to the ordnance supplies, and
I therefore confine my remarks chiefly to those wants which must be
met now, in order to maintain a force adequate to justify a reasonable
hope of success. If the army can be maintained in an efficient condi-
tion, I do not regard the abandonment of our present position as neces-
sarily fatal to our success.
1 96 W. R. 1295.
92 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
"The army operating under General Johnston has not yet been
concentrated and its strength is not accurately known. It is believed,
however, to be inferior to that of the enemy, and its condition gives no
strong prospect of a marked success.
"In the more southern portions of the country, east of the Missis-
sippi, our forces are numerically inferior to those of the enemy, nor
do I see any prospect, from my present information, of putting them
on a footing adequate to the performance of the services that they will
probably be called upon to render during the approaching campaign.
" While the military situation is not favorable, it is not worse than
the superior numbers and resources of the enemy justified us in expect-
ing from the beginning. Indeed the legitimate military consequences
of that superiority have been postponed longer than we had reason to
anticipate. Everything in my opinion has depended and still depends
upon the disposition and feelings of the people. Their representatives
can best decide how they will respond to the demands which the public
safety requires."
There is nothing in this letter which touches upon plans or
routes for moving the army in retreat. It answers to Ben-
ham's particulars only in being addressed to the Secretary
of War for the information of the Confederate Congress, in
giving the condition of the Confederate army, and in discuss-
ing in a general way the possibility of prolonging the war in
another field after the evacuation of Richmond.
It is highly probable that this letter was repeated to Grant
and also to President Lincoln at City Point, for he left Rich-
mond for that place (without meeting Dana), 1 April 5, on
which day Dana repeated it to Stanton at Washington. It is
quite probable that Benham learned of it at City Point, where
he was stationed, 2 on that da}^ or the next. On that day
Grant was at Wilson's Station, thirty miles west of City Point
and twenty miles beyond railway communication. That no
other letter from Lee was mentioned by Dana is strong evi-
dence that none containing information important for Grant
to know had been found, as also is the fact that President
Lincoln, who was taking a lively interest in the military move-
ments, at noon April 6, telegraphing from City Point to Grant
in the field, 3 tells of having been in Richmond April 4 and 5
without mentioning any letter giving Lee's routes for retreat.
As we shall see, on the evening of April 4 Sheridan had dis-
i 97 W. K. 975. 2 Ibid. 562, 585, 586. 3 Ibid. 593.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 93
covered Lee's army at the rendezvous to which its retreat had
been directed and had placed his force across its path to bar
the way to Danville, and early on the morning of April 6
Grant's infantry, which had joined Sheridan, sweeping across
country, had struck Lee's army retreating by a route farther
west to which it had turned in the effort to avoid the Union
army. Its subsequent routes were disclosed by daily contact
of the two armies until the surrender, April 9.
Let us now compare the record of the despatches which
passed between Grant and his commanders during the cam-
paign with its events, for internal evidence as to the informa-
tion on which the movements were based. It is to be borne
in mind that the period during which it would have been pos-
sible for Grant to have availed himself of the supposed letter
of General Lee could not have begun before some time on
April 3, after the entry of Weitzel's force into Richmond, and
that it terminated when Grant's last order was given for the
movements which terminated with the surrender, April 9. A
comparison of the events April 3-9 with those of the five
preceding days does not seem to warrant the opinion that
Grant showed more energy, skill, and judgment in the last
than in the first of these two periods. The situation at the
opening of the campaign was as follows. On the 23d of
March Sherman's army, nearly 90,000 strong, on its march
northward, had reached Goldsborough, North Carolina, one
hundred and ninety miles south of Petersburg. 1 Davis says
that early in March, as well as he can fix the date, Lee, seeing
that he must eventually leave Richmond and Petersburg, had
laid his plans for retreating to Danville, Virginia, close to the
North Carolina border, and then joining with Johnston's army
in North Carolina, to fall on Sherman with the combined force
before Grant could come to his relief. 2 Lee's army, intrenched
in front of Richmond and Petersburg on a line about thirty-
eight miles long, confronted Grant's army intrenched in a line
substantially parallel to it. The fronts were separated by the
James and Appomattox rivers for about ten miles of the line,
and were covered by heavy earthworks along the remaining
twenty-eight miles. The distance between the works was at
some points less than a pistol-shot, and never more than a
i 99 W. R. 969.
2 2 Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 648.
94 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
cannon-shot. From the southern front of Richmond the lines
ran southerly to Petersburg, and passing around the southern
front of the latter city, extended thence southwesterly about
eight miles to Hatcher's Run. The only routes by which the
Confederate army could retire to the interior of the South
were via Lynchburg for middle Tennessee or via Danville for
North Carolina. The former line Lee had definitely rejected. 1
To reach North Carolina it was necessary for Lee's army
either to break through the Union lines in front of Peters-
burg or to pass to the west of them and then turn southward.
Danville was about one hundred and twenty miles southwest
from the western flanks of the two armies. Close behind the
Confederate line was the Southside Railroad, which ran west-
erly to Lynchburg. Forty miles west of Petersburg at Burke-
ville it crossed the railway from Richmond to Danville. To
keep the Southside Railroad for use in retreat, it was necessary
to prevent the Union force from passing around the western
end of the Confederate line and sitting down upon the rail-'
way, and to keep control of the Danville Railroad for the same
use it was necessary to prevent the Union army from possess-
ing Burke ville. In the hope of delaying Grant's movement
against the railways and thereby postponing the necessity of
retreating, Lee, March 25, 2 assaulted and took Fort Stedman,
an earthwork directly in front of Petersburg, but was driven
out with considerable loss. Although unsuccessful, this attack
was based upon wise foresight in General Lee, for four days
earlier Grant, in his turn prophesying that Lee would soon
attempt to unite with Johnston, 3 had planned a movement
against the railways. 4 The attack did not deter Grant. Pur-
suing his plan, he brought three divisions of infantry and one
of cavalry under Ord from the Richmond front to the Peters-
burg front ; he started them with Sheridan's cavalry and the
Second, Fifth, and Sixth Corps, March 28, from the Petersburg
front to move westward beyond the end of the intrenchments
and then northward for the Southside Railroad. March 28
he wrote Sheridan : 5 —
1 2 Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 648.
2 Davis intimates that Lee, not actuated by his usual well-balanced judgment,
hoped that he might even avoid the retreat by success in this attack. (2 Rise and
Fall of the Confederate Government, 649.)
3 97 W. R. 67. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 234.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 95
" Reach the right and rear of the enemy as soon as you can. It is
not the intention to attack the enemy in his intrenched position, but to
force him out if possible. Should he come out and attack us or get
himself where he can be attacked, move in with your entire force in
your own way and with the full reliance that the army will engage
or follow the enemy as circumstances will dictate. I shall be on the
field and will probably be able to communicate with you. Should I
not do so, and you find that the enemy keeps within his main in-
trenched line [the western end of the line was at Hatcher's Run] you
may cut loose and push for the Danville road. It you find it practi-
cable, I would like you to cross the Southside between Petersburg and
Burkeville and destroy it to some extent. I would not advise much
detention, however, until you reach the Danville road, which I would
like you to strike as near to the Appomattox as possible. You can
then pass on to the Southside west of Burkeville and destroy that in
like manner. After having accomplished the destruction of the two
railroads which are now the only avenues of supply to Lee's army, you
may return to this army, selecting your road farther south, or you may
go on into North Carolina and join General Sherman."
It is clear from this that Grant here, six days before Rich-
mond fell, was planning to block both possible lines of retreat,
and that he believed that Danville rather than Lynchburg
would be Lee's destination.
When Lee learned of the movement of the Union troops
west of the intrenchments, he sent a force to interpose be-
tween them and the Southside Railroad and to check their
advance by an attack. On the 29th Johnson's division 2 of
this force, 6,400 strong, 2 moving southward, met and attacked
Griffin's division of the Fifth Corps, 6,500 strong, 3 in its
advance northward at the. Quaker Road, and was repulsed. 4
The loss on the Union side was 381, and on the Confederate
side between 700 and 900. 5 It was learned from prisoners
and deserters that troops from three Confederate divisions
had come out to the west of their intrenchments. The Union
line being well established, Grant, who was on the field,
1 95 W. R. 1286, 1287.
2 Ibid. 389; 96 W. R. 1264-1297. This allows for loss of 362 by desertion and
otherwise, February 28-March 29.
3 95 W. R. 601, 602, 796.
4 Ibid. 1287.
5 Ibid. 803-849. The wounded are computed at 4.8 times the killed. (Reg.
Losses, 24.) About 200 prisoners were taken (95 W. R. 846), but how many
of them were wounded is not reported.
96 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
seeing the opportunity to bring on a decisive battle outside
the intrenchments, wrote to Sheridan at the west end of the
line : 1 —
"I now feel like ending the matter, if it is possible, before going
back. I do not want you, therefore, to cut loose and go after the
enemy's roads at present. In the morning push around the enemy if
you can and get on to his right rear. . . . We will all act together
as one army until it is seen what can be done with the enemy."
March 30 the movement northward toward the Southside
Railroad continued, although much impeded by torrents of
rain, with slight encounters and with evidence of the presence
of an additional Confederate force west of their intrench-
ments. Sheridan's advance reached the vicinity of Five Forks,
seven miles west of the intrenchments and about two miles
south of the Southside Railroad. 2 Grant had 46,500 3 west of
his intrenchments ready to move on the Southside Railroad.
To oppose this force Lee had moved out about 23,000 4 of all
arms. It was yet within his power to abandon Richmond and
retreat with so good a lead that he could have reached Dan-
ville with an unbroken army ; but he chose the bold and, as it.
proved, the disastrous, alternative of taking the offensive. He
sent 8,500 infantry and artillery 5 to join his 5,000 6 cavalry at
Five Forks, and on the 31st, meeting Sheridan's 9,000 7 cavalry
near that point, pressed it slowly back several miles. It made
stout resistance, and at night presented a well-ordered front
at Dinwiddie Court House. During this combat Lee sent for-
ward, about three miles to the east, four brigades, 8 5,500 strong,
against the advance of the Fifth Corps at White Oak Road.
They attacked and sent in retreat two divisions of that corps,
9,000 strong, but were in turn driven back by other troops.
i 97 W. R. 266.
2 Ibid. 324.
3 The Second and Fifth Corps, Sheridan's and Mackenzie's cavalry, 95 W. R.
1101, 1104.
4 Fitz Lee's, W. H. F. Lee's, and Rosser's cavalry divisions, Pickett's and
Johnson's divisions, and Cooke's, McRae's, Scale's, and McGowan's brigades, 95
W. R. 1287, 1299 ; Va. Camp. 326.
5 Steuart's; Corse's, Terry's, Ransom's, and Wallace's infantry brigades, 95
W. R. 1287.
6 Fitz Lee's, W. H. F. Lee's, and Rosser's divisions.
1 95 W. R. 1101.
8 Moody's, Wise's, Hunton's, and McGowan's brigades, 95 W. R. 1287.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 97
This ended the battle at this point. The loss on the Union
side was 1,738, and on the Confederate side 800. 1 Then the
Fifth Corps was sent to join Sheridan. He with this corps
and his cavalry, about 25,000 in all, moving northward,
April 1, to Five Forks, there overwhelmed Pickett's infantry
and the cavalry, 13,500 in all, captured between 4,000 and
5,000, and drove the rest northward and westward. 2
The despatch of troops from the Petersburg intrenchments
to meet the Union advance above outlined left only about
11,000 Confederate infantry and artillery 3 to man the twelve
miles of intrenchments from the Appomattox to Hatcher's
Run. Grant, correctly judging that the reduction of the force
in the intrenchments gave chance of successfully assaulting
them, and also desiring to prevent the despatch of more troops
against Sheridan, ordered a general attack for the morning of
April 2. This attack was promptly made, a large part of the
intrenchments were carried, and the Confederate force was
cut in two by the penetration of the Second, Sixth, and Ord's
Corps. A part of the Confederates fled westward and, stand-
ing at Sutherland Station, were there attacked and put to
flight by Miles's division and continued to the northwest,
pursued until nightfall and to a point about fourteen miles
from Petersburg by Sheridan's cavalry, 4 who were closely fol-
lowed by the Fifth and a part of the Second Corps. The
intrenchments immediately around Petersburg were resolutely
and successfully defended by the Confederates until night,
which gave time for the evacuation of Richmond, already too
long delayed. The Confederate government officials left that
afternoon by rail for Danville, and that night all the Con-
federate troops in Richmond and Petersburg, as well as those
in front of Sheridan, withdrew without discovery by their
opponents. On the morning of April 3 the Confederate army
had vanished.
The field of the manoeuvres of the next three days may be
roughly outlined as a right-angled triangle, with Petersburg
at the rectangle, the perpendicular of about twenty miles run-
1 95 W. E. 677, 819.
2 Ibid. 1104, 1105, 1264; Va. Camp. 353.
8 Gordon's Corps, Davis's, McComb's, Lane's, and Thomas's brigades, Va.
Camp. 326, 363 ; 97 W. R. 1379.
4 95 W. R. 1119, 1289.
13
98 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
ning north to Richmond, the base of about forty miles running
west to a point a mile or two west of Burkeville, and the
hypothenuse of about forty-five miles running southwest from
Richmond substantially on the line of the Richmond and
Danville Railroad to Burkeville. Amelia Court House was a
station on the Danville Railroad about thirty miles southwest
of Richmond and fifteen miles from Burkeville. Several high-
ways from Richmond and Petersburg joined at Amelia Court
House, and thence roads following the general course of the
railroad through Burkeville afforded the shortest route to
Danville. Farther to the west there were more circuitous
routes to Danville, and northwest of them was a route to
Lynchburg, which is about seventy miles west of Burkeville.
As will appear later, the three portions of Lee's army, from
the base, the rectangle, and the northern angle, were marching
to concentrate at Amelia Court House for retreat thence along
the hypothenuse for Danville.
When the retreat of Lee's army became known, the ques-
tions before Grant were whether Lee's destination was Lynch-
burg or Danville, and if it was the latter, would he attempt to
go via Burkeville or would he take a route via Farmville or
farther west? The evidence all is that he had to rely upon
the information extracted from deserters, prisoners, and citi-
zens, and the news from his cavalry in the advance, to confirm
or to shake his belief that Lee's retreat must be to Danville.
No better exposition of his means of information and the bases
of his decisions can be invented than that found in the language
of the despatches of April 3, which I here quote : —
General Weitzel (in Richmond) to Assistant-Adjutant
General Bowers (at City Point) : —
" We took Richmond at 8.15 this morning."
Grant (at Petersburg) to Bowers : 1 —
" I start toward the Danville road with the army. I want to cut
off as much of Lee's army as possible."
Grant (at Petersburg) to Sheridan, 10.20 a.m. : 2 —
" I have no special orders to send further than those taken by
Major Hudson of my staff this morning. The troops got off from here
i 97 W. R. 509. 2 Ibid. 528.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 99
early, marching by the river and Cox Roads [westward]. It is under-
stood that the enemy will make a stand at Amelia Court House with
the expectation of holding the road between Danville and Lynchburg.
The first object of present movement will be to intercept Lee's army,
and the second to secure Burkeville. I have ordered the road to be put
in order to the latter place as soon as possible. I shall hold that place if
Lee stops at Danville, and shall hold it anyhow until his policy is indi-
cated. Make your movements according to this programme."
Sheridan to Grant, 1.45 P. M. : 1 —
" Before receiving your despatch I had anticipated the evacuation of
Petersburg and had commenced moving West. My cavalry is nine
miles west of Namozine Creek [within about ten miles of Amelia
Court House] and is pressing the enemy's trains. I shall push on to
the Danville Railroad as rapidly as possible. "
Grant (at Petersburg, 2.30 P. m) to Weitzel (at Richmond) : 2
" How are you progressing? Will the enemy try to hold Rich-
mond ? I have detained the division [from Ord] belonging to your
corps [25th] and will send it back if you think it will be needed.
I am waiting here to hear from you."
Be it understood that despatches between Richmond and
Petersburg were repeated at City Point.
Grant to Hartsuff, commanding Bermuda Front : —
" Has the enemy left your front ? "
Hartsuff to Grant : —
" The enemy is reported moving in the direction of Chesterfield
Court House [on the way to Amelia Court House]. It is the impres-
sion among deserters that they are going to Lynchburg."
President Lincoln (at City Point) to Secretary Stanton,
5 p.m.: 3 —
" I have already been to Petersburg. Stayed with General Grant an
hour and a half and returned here. It is now certain that Richmond
is in our hands. I think I will go there to-morrow."
Bowers (at City Point) to Grant, 5.15 P. M. : —
" I have been unable to get a despatch to you since morning. I re-
gretted to hear from the President, who has just returned, that you
did not receive WeitzeFs despatch announcing that he took possession
of Richmond at 8.15 this morning. I have not heard from him since."
i 97 W. R. 529. 2 i hi d. 534. 3 Ibid. 509.
100 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Grant (at Sutherland's Station, nine miles west of Peters-
burg) to General Sherman: 1 —
" The movements of which I spoke to you when you were here com-
menced on the 28th and . . . terminated in the fall of both Richmond
and Petersburg this morning. The mass of Lee's army were whipped
badly south of Petersburg, and to save the remnant he was forced to
evacuate Richmond. . . . The troops from Petersburg as well as
those from Richmond retreated between the two rivers [Appomattox
and James] and there is every indication they will endeavor to secure
Burkeville and Danville. I am pursuing with five corps and the
cavalry, and hope to capture or disperse a large number more. It is
also my intention to take Burkeville and hold it until it is seen whether
it is a part of Lee's plan to hold Lynchburg and Danville. . . . Should
Lee go to Lynchburg with his whole force and I get Burkeville, there will
be no special use in your going any farther into the interior of North
Carolina. In case of my failure to secure Burkeville ... it might
be necessary for you to operate on the enemy's lines between Danville
and Burkeville, whilst I would act on them from Richmond between the
latter place and Lynchburg."
Sheridan during April 3 pushed on into the triangle after
the retreating Confederates with his cavalry, the Fifth Corps,
and two divisions of the Second Corps. 2 The other division
of the Second Corps, two divisions of the Ninth Corps, and the
Sixth Corps started early in the morning to overtake them. 3
Ord's command was pushed westward 4 along the base of the
triangle. Grant made no move into the triangle from its
perpendicular, but operated entirely along and from its base.
The foregoing shows clearly that, in directing the movements
of April 3, he was guided by his judgment of the strategic
probabilities, and that believing that Lee's destination was
Lynchburg or Danville, although not certain which, he wasted
no time in trying to follow the forces which left Petersburg
and Richmond, but taking the chance that Weitzel's small
command would take care of their adversaries if they stayed
in Richmond, he pressed all the rest of his army west and
northwest to intercept if possible, or at any rate to strike,
Lee's army if it was retreating to the southwest, whether to
Danville or to Lynchburg.
By Grant's order the march continued by the same routes
i 97 W. R. 510. 2 iud. 512, 514, 516.
3 Ibid. 520, 521, 523, 524. 4 Ibid. 532.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 101
April 4. 1 The news was sent to Sheridan from Merritt com-
manding the advance in touch with the Confederates on the
north, that indications were that Lee's army was marching for
Amelia Court House, 2 and Sheridan aimed to strike the Dan-
ville Railroad about midway between Amelia Court House
and Burkeville. 3 The following despatches of that day are
instructive on the question under examination. Grant (at
Wilson's Station, about twenty-five miles west of Petersburg)
to Sheridan : 4 —
"An engineer from the Southside Railroad is just in from Burkeville.
He reports that Davis and cabinet passed there about 3 a. m. yesterday,
going south [towards Danville]. ... It was understood Lee was
accompanying his troops and that he was bound for Danville by way
of Farmville. Unless you have information more positive of the
movements of the enemy, push on with all despatch to Farmville and
try to intercept the enemy there. I will push two divisions of Ord's
troops as far toward Burkeville to-morrow as possible."
In fact, Lee's purpose was to go, not by Farmville, but by
Burkeville.
Sheridan to Grant, 12 M. : 5 —
" From the best information he can obtain General Merritt is of the
opinion that the enemy is retreating towards Lynchburg. General
Crook [commanding cavalry division] has no doubt reached the Dan-
ville Railroad before this. I am now moving out the Fifth Corps
from Deep Creek as rapidly as possible in the direction of Amelia
Court House.*'
Merritt (commanding Sheridan's cavalry in the advance six
miles southeast from Amelia Court House) to Sheridan,
3 p.m.: 6 —
" Generals Rosser and Fitz Lee camped here last night. They all
said they were going to Lynchburg. Everything indicates they are
moving that way, though I cannot tell certainly."
At 4 P. M. he reports both infantry and cavalry in his front,
and says : —
" Prisoners just taken report that some said they were going to
Amelia Court House and others across the Appomattox [northward]."
1 97 W. R. 529, 531. 2 Ibid. 531. 3 Ibid. 516-517.
* Ibid. 557. 5 Ibid. 556. 6 ibid. 559.
102 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
At night he wrote : —
" I am satisfied the enemy will leave our front as soon as they can
get off. Some say they will go to Lynchburg, others to Danville."
Sheridan (at JetersviUe on Danville Railroad) to Meade,
1p.m.: 1 -
" The rebel army is in my front three miles distant with all its train.
If the Sixth Corps can hurry up, we will have sufficient strength. I
will hold my ground until driven from it. I understand that Hum-
phreys [Second Corps] is just after the Fifth Army Corps. Please
notify General Grant. The enemy are moving from Amelia Court
House to JetersviUe and Burke's Station [Burkeville] to Danville.
Jeff Davis passed over this railroad yesterday to Danville."
These despatches make it clear that up to the evening of
April 4 Grant was not guided by any information as to the
routes taken by the Confederate forces in retreat, other than
what was gained by the ordinary method from deserters,
prisoners, and citizens, the contact of the advance with the
enemy, and the traces left by retreating troops, and that, being
uncertain whether Lee, aiming for Danville, would take the
shortest route along the hypothenuse of the triangular field of
operations above outlined, or one outside of it on the north-
west by way of Farmville, or, aiming at Lynchburg, would
take a route still farther northwest of the triangle, he directed
his troops so as to meet either event. Sheridan, with three
divisions of cavalry and the Fifth Corps, had left the base of
the triangle at Sutherland's Station, seven miles west of Peters-
burg, and gone across and established his line across the
hypothenuse at a point south of the approaching Confederates,
and the Second and Sixth Corps, diverging at Sutherland's
Station, had followed the Fifth into the triangle, 2 while Ord
with two divisions had continued moving westward for Burke-
ville along the base 3 as nearly as the roads allowed.
Let us return to April 2, to inquire whether the retreat was
conducted on a prearranged plan or not. Reference has been
made above to Davis's statement that before the campaign
opened Lee, rejecting the plan of retreating to Lynchburg, had
determined to go to Danville. Apparently this determination
w T as later than that announced by him in a letter of February
i 97 W. R. 557. 2 95 W. R. 680, 905. » i hidt i 177 .
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 103
22 * to Longstreet, commanding at Richmond, in which, refer-
ring to the possible necessity of leaving Richmond on the
approach of Sherman, he wrote : —
" Our line is so long, extending from the Chickahominy to the
Nottoway, and the enemy is so close upon us, that if we are obliged to
withdraw we cannot concentrate all our troops nearer than some point
ou the line of railroad between Richmond and Danville. Should a
necessity therefore arise, I propose to concentrate at or near Burkeville.
. . . With the army concentrated at or near Burkeville, our corn-
nunications north and south would be by that railroad and west by
the Southside Railroad."
He here clearly indicates the purpose of keeping open his
line to Lynchburg as well as to Danville. In this letter he
also specifies routes for troops from Richmond and Petersburg
which in fact were taken in the retreat ; but neither in this
letter nor in his subsequent despatches as far as published,
did he lay out routes for troops starting from any point west
of Petersburg, or hint that he had planned a rendezvous, or
otherwise provided, for such a disaster as his army suffered,
April 2, in being cut in two.
His despatches, April 2, from Petersburg run as follows : —
To the Secretary of War (received at 10.40 A. M.) : 2 —
" I see no prospect of doing more than holding our position here
till night. I am not certain that I can do that. If I can I shah with-
draw to-night north of the Appomattox, and, if possible, it will be better
to withdraw the whole line to-night from James River. The brigades
on Hatcher's Run are cut off from us ; the enemy have broken through
our lines and intercepted between us and them, and there is no bridge
over which they can cross the Appomattox this side of Goode's or
Beaver's, which are not very far from the Danville Railroad. Our only
chance, then, of concentrating our forces is to do so near Danville Rail-
road, which I shall endeavor to do at once." [Received at 4.55] "I
think the Danville road will be safe until to-morrow." [Received at 7
o'clock] "The troops will all be directed to Amelia Court House." 3
To President Davis : 4 —
"I have directed General Stevens to send an officer to your Excel-
lency to explain the routes to you by which the troops will be moved to
i 96 W. R. 1250. 2 97 W. R. 1378.
3 Ibid. 1379- * Ibid. 1378.
104 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Amelia Court House, and furnish you with a guide and any assistance
that you may require for yourself."
To General Ewell commanding at Richmond : 1 —
" Take the road with your troops to Branch Church via Gregory's to
Genito Road over Genito Bridge to Amelia Court House. . . . General
Stevens will indicate routes to you and furnish guides."
On the road, April 3, 6.30 P. M., Lee to Ewell : 2 —
" When you were directed to cross the Appomattox at Genito Bridge,
it was supposed that a pontoon bridge had been laid at that point as
ordered, but I learn to-day from Mr. Haxall that such is not the case.
Should you not be able to cross at that point or at some bridge higher
up, cross at Goode's."
Special Orders of General Lee, April 4, 3 direct spare ar-
tillery to be " sent by rail if practicable from Amelia Court
House to Danville or to some point south of it," and wagons
not necessary, to go via Farmville or some route west of this
across the Dan River west of Danville into North Carolina.
A despatch from the Provost Marshal in Richmond to Major
Archer, Quartermaster, April 2, 4 reads : " Is there anyone
here who can act as guide on the roads leading to Danville.
General Ewell desires one to report to him immediately " ; to
which Major Archer replied : 5 "I have no one who knows
anything about the road to Danville."
In his report of April 12, 1865, to President Davis, General
Lee wrote : 6 —
" Upon arriving at Amelia Court House, on the morning of the 4th,
with the advance of the army on the retreat from the lines in front of
Richmond and Petersburg, and not finding the supplies ordered to be
placed there, nearly twenty-four hours were lost in endeavoring to col-
lect in the country subsistence for men and horses. This delay was
fatal and could not be retrieved. The troops, wearied by continual
fighting and marching for several days and nights, obtained neither rest
nor refreshment, and on moving on the 5th on the Richmond and Dan-
ville railroad I found at Jetersville the enemy's cavalry, and learned
the approach of his infantry and the general advance of his army to
ward Burkeville. This deprived us of the use of the railroad and
rendered it impracticable to procure from Danville the supplies ordered
1 97 W. R. 1380. 2 Ibid. 1382. 3 Ibid. 1384.
* Ibid. 1381. & Ibid. e 95 w. R. 1265.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 105
to meet us at points of our march. Nothing could be obtained from the
adjacent country. Our route to the Roanoke [via Danville] was there-
fore changed, and the march directed upon Farmville, where supplies
were ordered from Lynchburg."
It can readily be understood that the entire absence of an
enemy in the rear of the troops retreating from Petersburg and
Richmond might well have given General Lee the impression,
during April 3, that the Union officers were at sea as to the
whereabouts of his army during the weary hours when its
columns toiling toward the rendezvous were so widely sepa-
rated that they could not have aided each other against
attacks. It is possible, also, that when he expressed this
impression to Custis Lee after the war, he supposed, as he did
when he wrote the report above quoted, that when he neared
Jetersville, April 5, the general advance of the Union army
was in progress toward Burkeville. If that had been the
case, it might have justified his impression, and the Confederate
army might have got away ; but in fact the Second, Fifth, and
Sixth Corps and three divisions of cavalry were across his
path in his immediate front, 1 and Ord's command reached
Burkeville that night. 2 The results were much more effective
toward the extinction of the Confederate army than any direct
movement from Petersburg or Richmond for immediate con-
tact with the flank or rear of the troops which left those places
on the night of April 2 could have been.
Sheridan's message on the 4th that he had the Confederate
army in front of him, above quoted, spurred the Second and
Sixth Corps to strenuous efforts, and by hard marching they
reached him April 5. 3 On the same da} r Ewell's command from
Richmond, the last of Lee's army, reached Amelia Court House. 4
That afternoon Lee, to avoid the Union force in front of him,
turned to the west and then to the south, and pressed forward
for Farmville. 5 The four corps under Sheridan and Meade,
moving forward early on April 6, discovered the rear of the
Confederate army moving to the westward, and turned to
1 95 W. R. 604, 1107, 1174.
2 Ibid. 1161. The Ninth Corps was distributed along the Southside Railroad
to guard it and so did not join in the pursuit.
3 Ibid. 681, 905, 913.
4 Ibid. 1294.
5 Ibid. 1265, 1294.
14
106 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
the left in pursuit which was continued all day with constant
encounters. 1 Near the close of the day one division of the
cavalry at Sailor's Creek threw itself across the road which
the Confederates were following, between Longstreet's Corps,
which had passed on to the south, and Anderson's Corps and
Ewell's command. The march of the two latter commands
being so arrested, they were encompassed and attacked on the
north, east, and south by all Sheridan's cavalry and the Sixth
Corps, and after fighting fiercely were all captured, killed, or
driven from the field. 2 At the same time Gordon's Corps,
standing at the crossing of Sailor's Creek two miles west and
giving stout battle, was driven by the Second Corps in much
confusion and with heavy loss. 3
It needs no argument to establish the fact that on this day
Lee, in changing from the direct route for Danville via Burke-
ville, to the route farther west via Farmville, changed his plan,
and that Grant, by contact with Lee's army, and not by any
other disclosure of his plans, discovered his intentions. Farm-
ville lay ten miles west of the battlefield of Sailor's Creek.
The next road south, which the Confederate army could have
taken for Danville, led from Farmville through Prince Edward
Court House, five miles south. On learning the results of the
battles of April 6, Grant that night ordered the Fifth Corps
to push for Prince Edward Court House, 4 and early on the 7th
that corps and Ord's Corps, preceded by Sheridan with two
cavalry divisions, pressed on to Prince Edward Court House 5
to bar the way there. But on the morning of April 7 Lee
passed " the main body across the river [Appomattox] for
temporary relief," to u still try to move around toward North
Carolina." 6 He thus forsook the direct route via Prince Ed-
ward Court House for one thirty-five miles farther west. Of
this he wrote in his report as follows : —
" On the morning of the 7th rations were issued to the troops as they
passed Farmville, but the safety of the trains requiring their removal upon
the approach of the enemy, all could not be supplied. The army, reduced
to two corps under Longstreet and Gordon, moved steadily on the road
to Appomattox Court House ; thence its march was ordered by Camp-
bell Court House through Pittsylvania toward Danville."
i 95 W. R. 681. 2 Ibid. 1107, 1108, 1265.
3 Ibid. 682, 1266. 4 97 W. R, 620, 621, 628, 634.
5 95 W. R. 1109. 6 97 W. R. 1389.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN. 107
Campbell Court House was thirty-five miles west of Farm-
ville.
That portion of the Confederate army which fled from
Sailor's Creek crossed the Appomattox River at High Bridge,
about four miles east of Farmville. They there made stand
against the Second Corps and tried to destroy the bridges.
Retiring to Cumberland Church, four miles west on the road to
Lynchburg, they there, with the rest of their army from Farm-
ville, were detained all day by the attacks of the Second Corps
and Crook's cavalry division, which had closely pursued them,
Grant arriving at Farmville, April 7, soon after the depar-
ture of the Confederates, again had to decide whether Lee
was aiming for Danville or Lynchburg. The despatches of
the day giving the impression from hour to hour are as
follows : —
Grant to Sheridan : J —
" The Second Corps and Crook's cavalry are north of the river at
this place. I have no report yet of ^appearances in their front, but
hear contradictory reports — one that Lee is going to Maysville [for
Lynchburg], another that he will strike south [for Danville] by roads
farther up the river [westerly]. I think on the whole you had better
throw your cavalry up the river toward Chickentown to watch the dif-
ferent crossings. The Twenty-Fourth Corps will move up the south
bank of the river. Just as this was written some of our men who were
captured last night have returned. They state that just as they left
about 1,000 cavalry were thrown out toward the crossings above here.
You may be able to get into the rear of the enemy possibly. It is re-
ported among the citizens here that Lynchburg was evacuated last night.
I do not doubt but Stoneman is there."
Meade to Grant, 7 p. m : 2 —
''There has been heavy firing in the direction of Humphreys [Sec-
ond Corps], but no report as yet. ... As far as I can judge the enemy
is making for Lynchburg. Perhaps only making a greater detour than
he originally designed, to get around us, and he yet meditates going to
Danville."
Grant to Meade, 7.45 p. m. : 3 —
4 'Order the Fifth Corps to follow the Twenty-Fourth [Ord's] at
6 a.m. up the Lynchburg road, the Second and Sixth to follow the
enemy north of the river." [The road referred to was that one south
of the river on which the cavalry were marching in advance.]
1 97 W. R. 621. 2 ibid. 620. 3 Ibid. 621.
108 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Sheridan (at Prospect Station, ten miles west of Farmville)
to Grant : 1 —
" I am moving the cavalry column on Appomattox Depot. There
are eight trains of cars at this point to supply Lee's army. Every-
thing is being run out of Lynchburg toward Danville. Our troops are
reported at Liberty. This must be Stoneman. One of my scouts
reports this. Possibly it may not be true."
Grant to Meade, 9.30 P. m.: 2 —
" Sheridan with his cavalry at Prospect Station. The enemy can-
not go to Lynchburg possibly. I think there is no doubt Stoneman
entered the city this morning. I will move my headquarters up with
the troops in the morning, probably to Prospect Station."
Some days earlier Thomas had started the Fourth Army
Corps eastward in East Tennessee, and they had reached the
mountains near the Virginia line, and Stoneman with a cavalry
command was destroying the track and bridges of the railway
from East Tennessee to Lynchburg, although he had not
reached Lynchburg, as supposed by Grant. 3 Grant's con-
fidence that Lee was not attempting to reach Lynchburg was
probably founded, partly at least, upon the belief that he
could not use the railroad and would not attempt to break
through the Fourth Corps in the effort to escape into East
Tennessee.
The delay enforced by the battle of the Second Corps and
cavalry on the 7th gave the Union column south of the Appo-
mattox a lead which enabled them to pass Lee's army, and on
the morning of April 9 to draw up in its path to bar its way
south. The other Union column closed up in its rear. Thus
enclosed, what remained of the gallant army of Northern
Virginia was surrendered by its great commander.
The campaign was as extraordinary in its brevity and rapid-
ity as in its conclusiveness. The disproportion in the num-
bers of the two armies was about the same as it had been
during the previous ten months which began with the Wilder-
ness campaign. The complete reversal in the fortunes of the
Confederates in the last period may be attributed primarily to
the strategy on either side which led them into battle against
superior numbers outside of the Petersburg intrenchments and
i 97 W. R. 633. 2 Ibid _ 6 2i.
3 103 W. R. 778, 783; 104 W. R. 152, 153, 171, 199.
1906.] THE APPOMATTOX* CAMPAIGN. 109
the defence of those intrenchments with insufficient numbers ;
to the delay in leaving Richmond ; and to inadequate prep-
arations for retreat. Grant's strategy was faultless. It is in
these facts, as well as in the facts that the Union army was
well supplied and well led, and that it marched and fought
with great spirit, rather than in any recondite circumstance,
that the cause of the swift catastrophe to the Confederate
arms is to be found.
Strength of Union Army March 28 to April 9, 1865.
March 3 1 . Present for duty equipped,
infantry and artillery 111,266 95 W. R. 62
Effectives reckoned at 93 per cent . 103,477 i ^' tr\ 6 % Qd
Cavalry in Army of James reckoned
at 85 per cent of present for duty
equipped 2,608 N. & L. 68, 69
Losses March 30 381 95 W. R. 803
March 26. Effectives in Sheridan's
cavalry 9,000 lb. 1101
115,466
Active Force West of the Appomattox.
Effectives in Second Corps .... 19,685
Losses March 31 461 95 W. R. 677
Effectives April 1 . 19,224
Losses April 1 and 2 462 lb. 680
Effectives April 3 . . . . . . . 18,762
Effectives in Fifth Corps .... 15,877 lb. 62
Losses March 29 381 lb. 803
Effectives March 29 ...... 16,258
Losses March 31 1,407 lb. 819
Effectives April 1 14,851
Effectives in Sixth Corps .... 17,097 lb. 62
Losses April 2 1,081 lb. 908
Effectives April 3 16,016
Effectives in Ninth Corps .... 16,882 lb. 62
Losses April 2 . . 1,719 lb. 1020
Effectives April 3 15,163
110 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Effectives in Ord's Corps estimated
at two-thirds of Twenty-Fourth and
one-third of Twenty-Fifth Corps . 13,831 95 W. R. 62
Losses March 30 to April 2 . . . . 1,743 lb. 1176, 1182
Effectives April 3 12,088
Effectives in Sheridan's cavalry . . . 9,000 lb. 1101
Effectives in Mackenzie's cavalry div. 1,000 lb. 1104
Strength of Confederate Army, 1865.
Feb. 4-March 1. Effective infantry
and cavalry in Army of Northern
Virginia 46,057 95 W. R. 390
Feb. 20. Effective artillery estimated
at 93 per cent of 5,428 reported
present for duty 5,048 lb. 388
Effective artillery in Second Corps
estimated at 1,255
( 95 W. R. 1299
Rosser's cavalry estimated effectives . 1,700 ] 91 W. R. 928, 929j
( 941
Department of Richmond .... 4,529 97 W. R. 1331
. 58,589
Deduct loss March 25, est. at . 4,000 \ 9 J W ' R ' 15 j>
( Va. Camp. 321
Deduct desertions Feb. 28 to
March 18 1,840 ( 96 W. R. 1293
Deduct estimated desertions <
March 18 to 28 ... . 920 ( 97 W. R. 1353
6,760
Total effectives March 28 . . . 51,829
Force West of the Appomattox.
In Petersburg Works :
Gordon's Corps effectives . 8,475 95 W. R. 388
Artillery est. at one-fourth of
other artillery .... 1,255 9,730
Desertions Feb. 28 to March 8 144 96 W. R. 1292
Desertions est. March 8 to 28 288 97 W. R. 1331
Loss March 25 estimated at . 2,500 Va. Camp 321
2,932 95 W. R. 155
Total effectives March 28 . . . 6,798
1906.]
THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN.
Ill
Davis's Brigade, Heth's Div.
effectives 728
McComb's Brigade, ditto . 937
Lane's Brigade, Wilcox's ef-
fectives 1,162
Thomas's Brigade, ditto . . 1,018 J
Artillery estimated at
Loss March 25 est. .
Desertions Feb. 28 to
200
4,045
700
March 28 est. at . 255
955
3,090
Artillery not included in other com-
mands estimated at . .
1,500
Total in Petersburg Works
11,388
Hatcher's Run to Claiborn
Road:
Cooke's Brigade, Heth's Divi-
}
sion effectives ....
1,552 1
MacRae's Brigade, ditto .
1,174 f
1,660 J
Scale's Brigade, Wilcox's .
Artillery estimated at
400
4,786
1,085
3,701
Losses March 25 est. at . . 800
Desertions Feb. 26 to March
28 estimated at ... . 285
Effectives March 28 . . .
In front of Fifth Corps :
Wise's Brigade, Johnson's Division
effectives .,•'».'..
Moody's (Grade's) Brigade, ditto
Huuton's Brigade, Pickett's Div.,
estimated at one-fourth of division
McGowan's Brigade, Wilcox's division
Artillery estimated at ......
Desertions Feb. 28 to March 28 est. at
Effectives March 29
One-third loss in Johnson's Division
March 29
Effectives March 31 5,500
95 W. R. 389
lb. 1285
96 W. R. 1292
97 W. R. 1352
95 W. R. 389
( 96 W. R.
(97 W. R.
1292
1352
1,544
95 W. R.
389
1,208
1,639
lb. 388
1.404
lb. 389
300
6,095
329
f 96 W. R.
1 97 W. R.
1292
3132
5,766
266
95 W. R.
1288
112 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
4,917 95 W. R. 388
In Sheridan's front:
Steuart's Brigade, est. at three-fourths "*
of Pickett's Division effectives
Corse's Brigade, ditto
Terry's Brigade, ditto
Ransom's Brigade, Johnson's Division 1,996
Wallace's Brigade, ditto 2,014 95 W. R. 389
Artillery estimated at 800
Desertions in Pickett's bri-
9,727
< 96 W.
(97 W.
R. 1292
gades Feb. 28 to March 29 581
R. 1332
Desertions in Ransom's Bri-
(96 W.
X seq.
R. 1238 et
gade Feb. 8 to March 9 . . 36
Est. desertions to March 28 . 72
689
1
Effectives March 28
9,038
Two-thirds loss in Johnson's Divi-
sion March 29
532
95 W.
R. 1288
Effectives March 31
8,506
Fitz Lee's Cavalry Division . . .
2,015
95 W.
R. 390
W. H. F. Lee's Cavalry Division .
1,984
95 W.
R. 1287
Rosser's, estimated* from Lomax's
Division December 19 . . . .
1,700
91 W
. R. 928,
Estimated desertions Feb. 9 to
5,699
941
March 28
500
5,199
For positions of the Confederate commands above named see 95
W. R. 1263, 1264, 1285 == 1288, 1299; 97 W. R. 1379. Va. Camp.
326, 328, 332, 355, 363.
Mr. Charles K. Bolton read the following paper : —
Mc Grady's Opinion of General Greene.
McCrady's work on South Carolina in the Revolution pos-
sesses qualities which give it a high place among authorita-
tive and readable State histories. The volume for 1780-1783
covers the period of Greene's campaign for the recovery of
the Carolinas; it treats therefore of national events from a
local point of view. The advantages of this treatment lie
in the opportunity the author had to discuss details which a
broader treatment could not with propriety. include. On the
1906.] McCRADY'S OPINION OF GENERAL GREENE. 113
other hand, the study of great movements in the light of their
relation to a restricted territory obviously tempts an author
to distort his perspective and to warp his judgment through
devotion to minor heroes and loyalty to his home soil.
Greene's relations with Sumter and Marion require only
a passing word in a general history. But here they influ-
ence McCrady's entire volume, because Greene's treatment of
Sumter and his opinion of the operations of the South Caro-
lina partisan leaders, both of them to a great extent local
in their interest, are nevertheless factors in shaping McCrady's
view of the Commander and his campaign.
In the early pages of the volume McCrady gives his evi-
dence against Greene, and devotes much space toward the
close to a vigorous arraignment of the General as scarcely less
hostile to South Carolina than to the British. On page 730
the author writes : — -
"It was not then known, it is true, how in his private correspond-
ence, with persons of influence near Congress, he [Greene] was belit-
tling and sneering at the conduct of her heroes, while to them he was
writing most flattering letters ; but his flattery could scarcely conceal
his real unfriendliness to them and to their followers, whom he de-
scribed as serving more for plunder than from the love of liberty."
Here we have two charges : first, that Greene was two-faced,
in that he sneered privately at those whom he flattered in
public ; and second, that he held the soldiers of Sumter and
Marion to be little better than marauders.
In fairness to Greene it must be said that his position in
the South was made particularly difficult by circumstances
over which he could have no control. He was of the Yankee
race, upon which the Southerner of that day had been taught
to look with mild and not always benevolent condescension.
He was under forty ; Sumter and Marion, on the other hand,
were well on toward fifty. He had a knowledge of the rules
of war and a genius for strategy ; Sumter and Marion could
not pretend to excel in either. In short, they did not have
many natural ties of interest.
In looking over the writings of Washington and others who
touch upon this period I have found little to add to McCrady's
own selection of material. He had a firm opinion, and it is
fair to suppose that he based this opinion largely upon the
materials which he places before the reader.
15
114 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Let us go back to the time of McCracly's narrative. It was
the month of April, 1781. Greene had led Cornwallis a long
chase into North Carolina, and had so discouraged him at Guil-
ford Court House that the British General turned his eves
still farther north toward General Phillips in Virginia as a
needed ally. Greene, uncertain as to Cornwallis's next move,
was hastening back to take Camden, the fort at Ninety-six,
and the minor strongholds still in British hands in South
Carolina. He was playing a great game, and each day was
of vital importance. In order to carry the plan on to success
he needed the support of every officer and man whom he could
reach. He was not trying to worry the British as a terrier
worries a rat, for Sumter and Marion had done that. It
was time to give the fatal stroke with all the strength at his
command. He called upon Marion, Lee, and Sumter for aid.
Marion, a dashing leader in irregular warfare, and Lee, a man
of ability and education, both supported him loyally ; Sumter
responded in such wise that his assistance could not be relied
upon.
Greene in letters to Lee expressed his views on Sumter
more frankly, perhaps, than circumstances required. Sumter,
as head of the State militia, although appointed by a governor
now with no government behind him, did not place himself
willingly under Greene's leadership. He was a brave, active
man, but arrogant and self-willed ; as a politician accustomed
to win and to hold popularity through lax military discipline,
he was out of harmony with the spirit of the army with
which he was expected to co-operate. His military service had
been of another character. The roving bands under Sumter,
Marion, and other local leaders were small ; Sumter had
several hundred followers, Marion one hundred or more. To
Greene's mind, no doubt, they were poorly disciplined, but
the occasion was pressing and he was too able a commander
to overlook small bodies of recruits. He was obliged to keep
their leaders friendly, and wrote to them in his hopeful, en-
couraging, rather fulsome vein. He once said that Howard
deserved a statue of gold no less than did the heroes of old.
If this was flattery, his words to Sumter and Marion were
much less deserving of that term. He called them brave men
who have suffered for their country.
To Marion the day before the battle of Hobkirk's Hill,
1906.] McCRADY's OPINION OF GENERAL GREENE. 115
which followed close upon the attempt to take Camden,
Greene wrote : —
" History affords no instance wherein an officer has kept possession
of a country under so many disadvantages as you have ; surrounded on
every side with a superior force ; hunted from every quarter with
veteran troops, you have found means to elude all their attempts, and
to keep alive the expiring hopes of an oppressed militia when all succor
seemed to be cut off . . . Nothing will give me greater pleasure than
to do justice to your merits."
McCrady thinks Greene was insincere in these words of
praise, because at the same time he told Washington x that their
exertions deserved great credit, but " their endeavors rather
seem to keep the contest alive than [to] lay any foundation
for the recovery of these States." At the same period Greene
told President Reed of Congress that Sumter and Marion were
" brave and good officers," and added, " Don't be deceived in
your expectations from this quarter ; if greater support cannot
be given for the recovery of these States, they must and will
remain in the hands of the enem}^."
Here we have the gist of the evidence of " duplicity " —
Greene encouraging Sumter and Marion at the crucial point of
a long and daring campaign, and at the same moment telling
the Commander-in-Chief of the army and the President of Con-
gress that these " brave and good officers " who (as Greene
said to Marion himself) " kept alive the expiring hopes of an
oppressed militia " could not with this militia free the Caro-
linas from British rule. If this plain statement to Washing-
ton and Reed, his superiors, was deception, it was certainly
of the mildest type. Where " war is hell," can there be no
flattery of a half-hearted ally to keep him loyal ?
Let us assume, for argument's sake, that McCrady suppressed
the most incriminating evidence of Greene's alleged unfair
treatment of Sumter. Why, then, were nearly all the chief
leaders engaged in the campaign out of sympathy with Sumter ?
Their united judgment throws the burden of proof upon
McCrady if he is to re-establish Sumter's reputation as a suc-
cessful and useful general at this period of the war. McCrady
seems to feel this misfortune in his hero's career keenly, for
on page 727 he enumerates Sumter's enemies with evident
pain. He writes: —
i McCrady, p. 178.
116 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
" It is difficult to understand the persistent hostility of Greene and
Lee to Sumter; it is still more so to understand the unwillingness of
Marion to submit to his command, or even to co-operate with him,
though appealed to by Governor Rutledge upon the subject ; but most
of all we are at a loss to account for the manifest coolness of Governor
Rutledge himself to one who, in the darkest hour of his country, had
raised its fallen flag and stemmed the tide of conquest, and whom he,
Rutledge himself, had put in command of all the militia."
In answer to McCrady we may say that Sumter as an
independent fighter did well "in the darkest hour of his
country," by terrorizing British detachments and American
loyalists ; but that he subordinated himself when Greene
came into the field and put his soul into the work we have
yet to be convinced.
The other point which arrests our attention is McCrady's
evident irritation at Greene's poor opinion of Sumter's men.
Greene wrote of them : —
" Generals Marion and Sumpter have a few people who adhere to
them, perhaps more from a desire and the opportunity of plundering
than from any inclination to promote the independence of the United
States."
These words Sumter quoted in a political circular to his
constituents in 1789, and added: "View this and suppress
your indignation if you can." McCrady curiously enough
follows Sumter's advice years later — he reads and fails to
suppress his indignation. But if we have other evidence that
Sumter's men lacked the discipline of a strong hand, here
again is presumption of an incompetent leader.
Now, what were the conditions in 1781? The war had
been going on for six years. The patriots who rushed to
arms in 1775 had long ago found that the scarcity of help in
cities and on farms had raised the price of labor and the cost
of production. They could not support families on a private's
pa} 7 . The usual result was that only from territory where
homes were threatened could other than a low order of
recruits be obtained for the army ; and at this time adven-
turers and mercenaries constituted a large part of it. Men of
this class, if thoroughly trained and disciplined, did nearly as
well as those who enlisted from love of country. We know
that Sumter's men had little training or discipline. When
1906.] McCRADY'S OPINION OF GENERAL GREENE. 117
Colonel Henderson took over Sumter's command, he reported
his opinion of them : —
" On my arrival to take command of them I found them the most
discontented set of men I ever saw, both men and officers; a few-
individuals excepted who regardless of any pecuniary consideration are
determined to serve their country. The thirst after plunder that seems
to prevail among the soldiery makes the command almost intolerable." l
McCrady also quotes Colonel Wade Hampton : —
" The situation in which I found this neighborhood [Friday's Ferry]
the day after I had the honor of seeing you is truly to be lamented.
Almost every person who remained in this settlement after the army
marched seems to have been combined in committing robberies, the
most base and inhuman that ever disgraced mankind."
McCrady says that the citizens but imitated the soldiers in
these practices. We then have evidence from McCrady's
volume, and testimony from persons other than Greene, that
South Carolina troops engaged in plunder. Sumter himself
promised spoils. His plan 2 to enlist recruits by offers of a
negro as bount}^ to each man, and pay in plunder, grew out of
the desperate situation in which South Carolina then was.
Sumter is not greatly to be blamed. But to expect other than
hirelings under the system was to expect that the plant in such
soil would produce wholly unnatural fruit. There were some
valuable men in every company throughout the war. But why
should South Carolina hope for a larger proportion than there
were in other colonies ? We expect officers to reach a higher
standard than do privates, and yet what of those from Massa-
chusetts at the siege of Boston? Said Captain Chester : " The
most of the companies of this Province are commanded by a
most despicable set of officers." Said Washington : "I have
already broke one Col° and five Captains for cowardice, or for
drawing more pay & provisions than they had men in their
companies." Washington, in a moment of discouragement,
wrote that our New England troops were governed by a
"dirty, mercenary spirit" which to some extent "pervaded
the whole." If Washington, a Southern man serving in the
North, and Greene, a Northern man-serving in the South, were
out of patience at times with New England and South Caro-
1 McCrady, p. 426. 2 jbid. p. 144.
118 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
lina, we are hardly justified in reading into their words a pre-
meditated and deliberate intention to stigmatize these men as
inferior to troops in other colonies, Hasty expressions, which
harbor some truth, are often the product of stress and conflict.
Would McCrady, had he not narrowed his horizon to the field
of a local history, have taken these comments of Greene so
much to heart?
In these ways McCrady's volume seems to me to illustrate
the difficulty of treating national events in a work of local
history where these events affect local reputations. On the
other hand, McCrady in his work shows a knowledge of South
Carolina which no general historian could hope to possess.
Incidental remarks were made during the meeting by the
President and Messrs. James F. Rhodes and Albert B.
Hart.
yU&CUAA yy4l^dL^yvt^ eyt/j^UAA
1806.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 119
MEMOIR
OF
MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN.
BY HENRY W. HAYNES.
Mellen Chamberlain was born in Pembroke, New Hamp-
shire, June 4, 1821, the second of the five children of Moses
and Mary (Foster) Chamberlain. The earliest known ances-
tor of the family was Jacob Chamberlain, born about 1690,
according to the inscription upon his gravestone in Rumney
Marsh (now Revere), Massachusetts, where he died in 1734.
He married, in 1714, Abigail, daughter of William Hasey, of
Rumney Marsh. Mary Foster was the daughter of Rev.
Abiel Foster, of Canterbury, New Hampshire, a descendant
of John Rogers, the fifth President of Harvard College, and of
Governor Thomas Dudley. Moses Chamberlain was a farmer,
who also carried on the business of a country shopkeeper.
The son helped his father in both occupations, attending the
district schools of the town, and later the Academy in Pem-
broke, until his fifteenth year, when the family removed to
Concord, New Hampshire, in 1836. For the next four years
he pursued the studies preparatory for college at the Literary
Institute of that place, continuing to assist his father and
teaching district schools in the winter. In 1840 he entered
Dartmouth College, and graduated, in 1844, with a class in
which were included an unusual number of men who after-
wards attained distinction. During his college course he
taught school three winters in Danvers, Massachusetts. His
college rank was sufficiently high* for him to be chosen into
the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter of the college. All his life long
he looked back with gratitude to his Dartmouth training, and
ever cherished a warm affection for his classmates, which
was fully reciprocated by them. His college on its part
120 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
regarded him as a worthy son, arid bestowed upon him the
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1885 ; and his fellow
alumni twice called upon him to be their spokesman in
expressing their admiration for Dartmouth's greatest son,
Daniel Webster, — at a dinner in 1882, and at the dedication
of his statue in 1886. In May, 1844, a little before his
graduation, Mr. Chamberlain was chosen principal of the high
school at Brattleborough, Vermont, and there he remained
until late in 1846. In an " Address at the Dedication of the
Brooks Library Building, at Brattleborough, Vermont, Janu-
ary 25, 1887," he gives a charming account of his life as a
teacher, and of the town and its society, which at that time
included a notable number of cultivated citizens and summer
visitors of distinction, especially drawn thither by the estab-
lishment of one of the earliest "Water Cures" in this country.
From Brattleborough he entered the Dane Law School at
Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the late autumn of 1846. He
was soon made the Librarian, and remained there for two
years, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1848. He
himself says that this " situation brought him into official
relations to the college, and afforded him social privileges,
which otherwise he could not have had." Among the most
valued of these he regarded the opportunity of passing some
months in the capacity of private tutor in the family of Chan-
cellor Kent at Kent Place, Summit, New Jersey. In January,
1849, he was admitted to the bar in Boston, and opened a law
office on Washington Street, which he shared with the late
John S. Holmes. Later he removed to No. 35 Court Street,
where the late Seth Webb was his office companion, and after
Webb the present writer shared the office with him from 1856
to 1867. On June 6, 1849, he was married to Martha Ann,
daughter of Colonel Jesse Putnam, of Danvers, Massachu-
setts, whose acquaintance he had made during his terms of
school teaching in that town, in his college course. In a let-
ter to his father, written from the Law School at Cambridge,
October 3, 1848, he says : —
u I intended to have entered my profession about this time, but the
retirement of the old professors brought on new ones, who knew
nothing of the affairs of the school, and they insisted upon my staying
this terra, which I agreed to do for three hundred dollars extra. . . .
On the first of January I shall have seven hundred and thirty dollars
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 121
in pocket. If there is any such thing as luck in the world, I have had
it. True, I have worked like a dog and lived like a miser. ... 1 have
arranged to get married, and suppose that my money will carry us to
January, 1850, when the purse will be empty. At twenty-eight one
may get married, and it becomes a matter of necessity, when one has
lived so long alone as I have. But notwithstanding the apparent rash-
ness of this step I have no fear. My life will be insured, so that in
case I should be taken away, Martha will not be left destitute, and
that 's all I care about. But I will not anticipate that. Ten years
unassisted toil have given me, strength and power to do and to dare.
You will gather from what I write that I am in excellent spirits ;
I am so."
His anticipations were fully realized ; his marriage brought
him at once into a large and agreeable family circle, and his
professional earnings proved sufficient for their modest wants.
He soon began to secure a considerable office business, to
which was added a fair share of court practice, and he also
reported court business for the " Boston Advertiser." But his
main occupation was that of a conveyancer. Two or three
large farms in Chelsea began to be cut up for building pur-
poses about this time, and the Winnisimmet Land Company
concluded to sell all of its extensive holdings. Mr. Cham-
berlain began a thorough study of the titles to all the real
estate in Chelsea, and his knowledge became so extensive that
hardly a land title could be passed in that community without
consulting him. The results of his investigations were con-
signed to twelve large folio volumes, which by his last will
were bequeathed to the city of Chelsea and have been placed
in its Public Library.
Immediately upon their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain
went to live in Chelsea. After several changes of residence
he built a comfortable house, pleasantly situated on Washing-
ton Avenue, upon the western slope of Powderhorn Hill,
with ample grounds in the rear in which to cultivate fruits
and flowers. There he passed the remainder of his life. Mrs.
Chamberlain died suddenly, April 25, 1887, leaving no chil-
dren. Their union was a signally happy one, and from her
loss he never recovered. Their home was the centre of much
intellectual life, at which for many years gathered weekly a
class of young people of both sexes for the study, under his
guidance, of English and American literature. In his later
16
122 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
years Mr. Chamberlain was in the habit of passing a portion of
every summer at Boar's Head, Hampton Beach, where he was
accustomed to meet a congenial company of friends, of whom
the late Governor and Mrs. Charles H. Bell, of New Hamp-
shire, and our associate member Rev. Dr. Slafter, were among
his most intimate companions.
Soon after his establishment in Chelsea Mr. Chamberlain
began to be called upon by his fellow citizens for various sorts
of public service, as school committee man, selectman, alder-
man, on the organization of the city, in 1857, and for six years
as City Solicitor. In 1858-1859 he was chosen a Representa-
tive to the General Court from the Thirteenth Suffolk District,
and was made a member of the special committee on the Re-
vision of the Statutes. In 1863-1864 he was elected to the
State Senate, and during the latter year was the chairman of
the Judiciary Committee. Those who served with him in the
legislature were accustomed to speak of his public services as
of great value, and to esteem his powers as a debater as of a
high order. He was an excellent public speaker, logical and
impressive, while his remarkable memory readily supplied
him with an abundance of illustrations to enforce and enliven
his arguments, and his tall and erect figure, his dignified
bearing, and his strong and commanding countenance lent
additional energy to his words.
On June 29, 1866, he was appointed by Governor Bullock
an Associate Justice of the newly created Municipal Court of
the City of Boston. Mr. George B. Chase, in a most sym-
pathetic tribute to his memory before this Society, 1 has given
an amusing account of the circumstances of this appointment.
From June, 1866, to December, 1870, he served as Associate
Justice, and then was appointed by Governor Claflin Chief
Justice, which office he continued to hold till August, 1878.
His services on the bench thus cover a period of twelve
years. Mr. Chase has also quoted the opinion of one of his
associates, the late Chief Justice Parmenter, as to his special
qualifications for the office, and the method and quality of his
work in it.
In the summer of 1875 Judge Chamberlain made a visit of
six months to Europe, where his taste for art, scenery, his-
1 2 Proceedings, vol. xiv. p. 273.
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 123
tory, and literature was amply gratified. His letters home
were exceedingly entertaining. Several of them appeared in
the Boston newspapers, and attracted more than usual atten-
tion. In England and Ireland he took every opportunity to visit
the courts, and always received a most polite welcome.
In August, 1878, Judge Chamberlain was called to be the
Librarian of the Boston Public Library, succeeding our late
associate Justin Winsor. This position he continued to hold
until October, 1890, when he resigned on account of failing
health, after another twelve years' term of faithful service. The
circumstances of this appointment are amusingly told by Mr.
Chase in an account of his interview with our late associate
Mr. William W. Greenough, for so many years the President
of the Board of Trustees of the Library. His first report as
Librarian 1 shows how strenuously he took hold of his new
duties, and what fresh measures he suggested, most of which
have become a part of the permanent administration of the
Library. Among these were the appointment of a night
watchman to insure protection against fire, and the installa-
tion of a self-registering clock to make certain his actual
presence ; a thorough examination of the Library to discover
its most important deficiencies, mainly incomplete sets of
periodicals, serials, and continued works, and a permanent
arrangement by which these could be gradually secured; and
the employment of a bookbinder to take down each volume
from the shelves, dust it, and make any needed repairs to the
binding ; by this measure the annual closing of the Library for
cleaning purposes could be dispensed with. But his most im-
portant suggestion was for a conference with the Superin-
tendent of Public Schools, our late associate Dr. Samuel
Eliot, and a committee of the masters of the schools to devise
some system whereby in his own words " the best literature
of the Public Library shall find its way into the public schools
. . . and become an instrument in the hands of the public
teacher of imparting knowledge at the public expense to those
whom the city is under legal obligations to educate." He
also makes the recommendation that " a course of lectures be
established . . . designed to induce the critical and apprecia-
tive reading of the best things in literature by those who
1 Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the Public Library, 1879,
p. 17.
124 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
might repair to them for instruction, as there always is in
every community a considerable number of persons who would
gladly avail themselves of such opportunities." It has taken
some time to realize, but we all now perceive what substantial
fruit this wise and far-seeing suggestion was destined to pro-
duce in these later years. In his annual report of the follow-
ing year 1 he says : —
" In my annual report of last year I suggested to the Trustees the
propriety of setting apart some portion of the annual appropriation for
books to meet the requisitions of the teachers of the public schools by
the purchase of such books as in their judgment might be useful to their
pupils, and those to have their local habitation in the several houses
under their charge, but always to remain the property of the Public
Library. . . . Some difficulties arose with respect to these requests.
In the first place there were no more than two or three copies, instead
of fifty, of each in the Library, and no funds from which they could
properly be purchased ; and secondly, the nature of the loans and the
time for which they were desired were in contravention of the Library
rules."
Eventually the books were purchased from funds supplied
from a private source, presented to the Library and accepted
by the Trustees, upon the condition that they should be
loaned according to the wishes of the donor. After a year's
use in one of the schools they were returned in good order to
fulfil similar requisitions for other schools. The reading of
these books was not a part of the regular school exercises ;
each pupil was expected to read his copy at home, as he
would read any other books taken from the Public Library,
but to be examined once a week upon what was thus read.
The cost of the experiment for a year was less than fifty dol-
lars. Thus was taken the first step in the important work of
supplying " supplementary reading matter " to the schools
from the Public Library. Another improvement suggested
was to have important new English publications forwarded
promptly by mail for the use of the patrons of the Library,
instead of waiting to have them sent in the usual slow
course of purchases by the foreign agents of the Library. He
also introduced a method of covering with linen canvas the
heavy, costly volumes, that were subjected to great wear and
i Report, 1880, p. 19.
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 125
tear in their use, and this style of binding has been substan-
tially adopted for the greater portion of the books newly
added to the Library, and of the older volumes as their
binding wears out.
Such were some of the new ideas introduced into the man-
agement of the institution by the new Librarian. Though it
cannot be claimed that he developed remarkable executive
ability in this office, he certainly made a satisfactory officer in
all of his relations with the public; and he won the respect
and affection of all its employees, from the highest to the
lowest. The opinion of his services held by the Trustees, of
whom the writer was one during nearly the whole of his term
of office, is manifested by the tenor of the resolutions adopted
by them on accepting his resignation : —
" Whereas, Hon. Mellen Chamberlain has been constrained by the
impaired condition of his health to resign the office of Librarian of
the Public Library, and the Trustees have reluctantly accepted his
resignation, to take effect on the First day of October next.
Voted, That the Trustees hereby place upon their records the expres-
sion of their regret for the loss which the Library must sustain in no
longer benefiting by the services of so accomplished and so faithful a
scholar as Judge Chamberlain has shown himself to be during his
twelve years of service.
Voted, That the special attainments of the Librarian in the study
of early American history have proved of essential advantage to the
Library in bringing up that department to the high standing that had
already been reached in other branches of knowledge.
Voted, That the Trustees hereby convey to Judge Chamberlain the
expression of their respect and regard, their regrets that their pleasant
intimate relations must cease ; their hope that his enforced leisure may
result in restored health, and their wish that his life may long be spared
to give to the world from his stores of knowledge."
The antiquarian tastes of Judge Chamberlain were devel-
oped in his early youth, and were fostered after his removal to
Concord, New Hampshire, in 1836, by his intimacy with John
Farmer, the archivist of the State of New Hampshire, whom
he assisted in some of his historical and genealogical investi-
gations. He began at that time to gather his remarkable col-
lection of autographs, to which he afterwards added such
letters, documents, and other manuscript material, portraits,
and engravings, as he could obtain by exchange with other
126 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
collectors, and by purchase as his income increased. He was
an indefatigable searcher of old garrets and all out-of-the-
way repositories of letters and other papers, making repeated
journeys throughout New England for that purpose, and
numbered among his correspondents, with whom he made con-
stant exchanges, all the prominent collectors of this country;
among whom were his boyhood friend, Dr. George H. Moore,
of the Lenox Library in New York, Dr. Sprague, of Albany,
Mr. Taft, of Savannah, and Mr. Gilmore, of Baltimore ; from
the latter he obtained Southern autographs and documents.
Personally, or by order, he attended all the autograph sales
in this country, and through dealers' catalogues added to his
stores by purchase from England, France, and Germany. Thus
his collection gradually grew to be of incalculable value, and
it became a matter of great anxiety with him to decide what
to do with it. To prevent the possibility of its ultimate dis-
persal, if left to his heirs, he concluded to provide by his last
will that it should become the property of the Boston Public
Library. In 1893, seven years before his death, he made an
arrangement with the Trustees that it should be deposited in
a room to be specially prepared for it in the new Library build-
ing and set apart as its permanent home, though he retained
his property in it during his lifetime. It will hardly be neces-
sary to attempt to give here an account of its treasures, as
the Trustees published, in 1897, " A Brief Description of the
Chamberlain Collection of Autographs, now deposited in the
Public Library of the City of Boston." This was based in
part upon an elaborate article, contributed by the late Rev.
Julius H. Ward, to the " Boston Sunday Herald," of April 7,
1895, from memoranda furnished by Judge Chamberlain him-
self. To this publication the Trustees added, in 1898, a sup-
plement containing " The Texts of the Four Great Documents,"
reprints of " The Address to the King, 1774," the " Declara-
tion of Independence (1776)," the " Articles of Confedera-
tion (1777)," and the " Constitution of the United States
(1787)." To these texts are affixed the autographs of the
respective signers. These four texts have been removed from
the rest of the collection, and with a series of sixty -three
framed tablets, made up also of detached autograph signatures,
grouped and illustrated by portraits, biographical sketches,
and historical notes, are now displayed upon the walls of the
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 127
room for Younger Readers. These two pamphlets, however,
are intended only to be preliminary to a complete description
and analysis of the whole collection, now in course of prepa-
ration ; they are sufficient, however, to indicate that The
Chamberlain Collection of Autographs and Manuscripts will
eventually prove one of the richest sources of information
available for the students of American History, a worthy
monument to the memory of its creator.
A very interesting example of Judge Chamberlain's skill
and judicial temperament in the investigation of questions
bearing upon the genuineness of autograph signatures can be
found in a note, appended to the " Bulletin of the Boston
Public Library, No. 79, May, 1889," upon an " Autograph
which may be Shakespeare's." In 1880 a copy of North's
Plutarch, 1603, had been purchased by the Library, which,
though complete and in the original binding, was in bad con-
dition and was consequently sent to the bindery for repairs.
There was found to be a fold of parchment, about two inches
wide, running the entire length of the hinge of the cover,
a strip of paper of the same width and length, together with
two or more shorter strips, on one of which at the beginning
of the volume were written the words " William Shakespeare,
hundred and twenty poundes." The paper bearing the name
of Shakespeare is a fold, organically a part of the volume
when it was purchased, as appeared by the sewing, but at
what time the name was written on it is the important ques-
tion. The strips of paper at the end of the volume also con-
tained some writing, a couple of Latin quotations which must
have been there when the volume was originally bound. All
of these writings, including that containing the name of
Shakespeare, though not in the same ink, are in the ink and
handwriting of the seventeenth century, and probably were
concealed from view until the linings of the inside covers
became detached. There was also a worm-hole, running
through the parchment, the title-page, and three hundred
and ten pages of the text. This hole pierced between the
words "and" and "twenty," in the Shakespeare writing, and
it must have been bored after the writing was made, as other-
wise the pen would have caught upon its edges, which plainly
did not happen. Judge Chamberlain proceeds to discuss the
question whether it is an autograph writing, and whether it
128 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
is in the handwriting of Shakespeare, at considerable length
and with great acuteness. Quoting the opinion of three ex-
perts, collectors of autographs of long experience, he concluded
that the writing is an original signature, not a man's name
written by another, or an imitation. He insists that the writ-
ing bears a strong resemblance to the known genuine signa-
tures of Shakespeare, and discusses the possibility of its being
a forgery ; deciding against its being such, and laying stress
upon his familiarity with the history of historical, literary, and
autograph forgeries in England and America. His conclusion
is that " the Library autograph presents more reasons in favor
of its genuineness and too few objections to warrant an ad-
verse judgment." Eight process plates are appended to the
article showing the title-page, with the paper fold at the hinge
containing the worm-hole, also the same turned back upon the
cover, the hinge at the end of the volume, with the strips of
parchment and paper bearing writing, and the same with the
strip turned down disclosing writing otherwise concealed ;
there are also added four pages of facsimiles of Shakespeare's
autographs, together with enlargements of the same and also
of the Ireland forgeries and of the Library signature.
Judge Chamberlain was elected into the Massachusetts
Historical Society January 9, 1873, and immediately began
to take a prominent part in its proceedings. He delighted
in his membership, and was most assiduous in his attendance
at the meetings. To its published volumes he made numer-
ous valuable and interesting contributions, while in the dis-
cussions that arose he was ever ready to draw upon his stores
of knowledge with a fulness and accuracy of memory truly
remarkable. He served frequently upon the committees,
from 1885 to 1888 was a member of the Executive Committee
of the Council, and presented the annual report in 1888.
The notes contributed by him as one of the editors of Sewall's
Letter-Book, 1886-1888, are marked by his usual thorough-
ness and accuracy. He was also one of the members of the
Committee to publish a volume of Belcher Papers, in 1892,
and in 1894 was made one of the Publication Committee of
the Bowdoin and Temple Papers.
Since his contributions to the successive volumes of our
Proceedings form a substantial portion of his published work
and are of great variety and of exceptional value, it seems
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 129
advisable to give a complete list of them, with the volumes
in which they can be found, in order to facilitate ready refer-
ence to them. His first paper was a " Sketch of the Life of
Rev. Samuel Henly " (Vol. XV. p. 230). Next appeared a
study of "The Currency Question in Provincial Times " (Vol.
XX. p. 32); and in the same volume (p. 223), a discussion
of "The Charges against Samuel Adams."
In the first volume of the second series (p. 211) he gave
an account of the remarkable very early "Map of Eastern
Massachusetts,'' discovered by our associate Mr. Henry F.
Waters, in the Sloane Collection of the British Museum, and
published by the Trustees of the Boston Public Library in the
Bulletin for October, 1884, from which it was reproduced in
Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America" (Vol.
III. p. 381). In the same volume of our Proceedings (p. 273)
appeared a notable paper on " The Authentication of the
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776," in which, after a
thorough study of the original records and of all the available
evidence, he proves that the signing did not take place upon
the Fourth of July. He suggests that the Declaration should
have been preceded by some such recital as the following :
"The foregoing Declaration having been agreed to on July 4th
by the delegates of the thirteen united Colonies, and the same
having been engrossed, is now subscribed, agreeably to a Reso-
lution passed July 19th, by the Members of Congress present
this 2nd day of August, 1776." On page 266 of the same
volume he showed that "Samuel Maverick's House" was not
built on Noddle's Island, East Boston, some time before 1628,
as stated by Edward Johnson in his " Wonder-working Provi-
dence," but was erected in 1625, — as he himself states in
the valuable manuscript, " A Brief Description of New Eng-
land, etc.," discovered by Mr. Waters in the British Museum
and printed on page 236 of the same volume of our Pro-
ceedings, — and .was built in " Winnisime," upon land now
in the grounds of the United States Marine Hospital in
Chelsea.
In Vol. II. 2d ser. p. 122, he told of an interesting episode
in the history of " The Old Province House," which had
escaped the notice of local antiquaries : its occupation by
the Earl of Bellomont, when Governor, for fourteen months,
from the latter part of May, 1699. On pages 275-305 of the
17
130 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
same volume he printed a Journal of Captain Henry Dearborn
on " Arnold's Expedition to Quebec."
For the next volume (Vol. III. 2d ser. pp. 102-133), he
contributed three other "Journals of Captain Henry Dear-
born," belonging to the Boston Public Library and covering
the period from July 25, 1776, to March 1, 1783. On page
371 he called attention to the new edition of the " Massachu-
setts Colonial Laws," in the Revision of 1672, published under
the editorial supervision of our late associate Mr. William H.
Whitmore, and he has no doubt that this will stimulate, and
go very far to answer, inquiry on a great many subjects of
historical interest. Among matters instanced was the fact
that the General Court of Massachusetts had passed laws
going far beyond the Acts of Parliament that were supposed
to give validity to Writs of Assistance in the Colonies, which
were so grievous to our ancestors a hundred years later. So,
too, the requirement that revenue cases should be tried in
Admiralty, which caused much dissatisfaction when enacted
by Parliament, was in substance the Massachusetts law of
1674. Also we find, among other invasions of the King's
prerogative, that the Colonists apparently claimed the right
to grant and annul patents.
In Vol. IV. 2d ser. p. 48, Judge Chamberlain gave an
account of the efforts of Samuel Adams to safeguard " New
England Fisheries" in the negotiations for peace with Great
Britain, as proved by the original draft of documents in
Adams's handwriting in his own possession. On page 82
of the same volume he printed the first eight pages of the
" Journal of the Committee of Correspondence " of Massa-
chusetts, with the other Colonies, in 1773, from the original
in the possession of the Boston Public Library.
To Vol. V. 2d ser. p. 265, he contributed a paper on " The
New Historical School,' 7 devoted principally to criticism of
the late Professor Alexander Johnston's " History of Con-
necticut." As a disciple of Edward A. Freeman, Professor
Johnston had propounded the theory that Connecticut towns
came originally from the forests of Germany to England, and
from England to Massachusetts Bay, whence three of them
(Watertown, Newton, and Dorchester) migrated to Connec-
ticut as organizations, and there, in 1669, set up a common-
wealth as the result of their joint corporate action ; that these
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 131
towns having created a commonwealth, became a pattern for
towns in other commonwealths ; and so happily had their sys-
tem of confederated towns worked, and especially in relation
to the commonwealth, that the Connecticut delegation in
the Convention of 1787 was able to persuade that body to
form the Constitution of the United States on the same basis,
— the Senate with its equal and unalterable representation of
sovereign States answering to the independent Connecticut
towns, and the House of Representatives answering to the
Connecticut Council, both being elected by popular vote.
To this reasoning Judge Chamberlain replies that the fallacy
of this scheme lies in its theory respecting towns : their
existence independent of some sovereign power, and in call-
ing the towns the political cell from which the common-
wealth was evolved. A town can be the germ of nothing
but a greater town, never of a commonwealth. The rights
and duties of towns are communal, and for such rights
and duties they may provide ; but even these powers are
delegated, not inherent. The rights and duties of the State
primarily concern sovereignty, external relations, and general
laws affecting the inhabitants of all the State. He then
proceeds to state his own views of the question : that our
English ancestors did not bring with them English towns or
English churches or British institutions ; but as occasion
required they builded for themselves, as Englishmen always
and everywhere had done and still do. Analogies do not con-
stitute identities, instincts are not institutions ; nor does simi-
larity of design or adaptation of institutions indicate heredity,
or even relationship. " The genesis of American Common-
wealths," according to his view, "is historically clear: (1)
They originated with mere adventurers for fishing, hunting,
or trading, who, without territorial ownership or by state
authority, established themselves on the coast. Among these,
though with other views, must be included the Pilgrims,
driven out of their course by adverse circumstances, as well
as the first settlers of Rhode Island and Connecticut. (2)
They originated with those who had purchased lands and
obtained charters from the crown. (3) They were founded
under Proprietary governments. (4) They were founded
as Royal governments." Judge Chamberlain admits that the
Connecticut delegation had great influence in the Conven-
132 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
tion : first, because Sherman, Johnson, and Ellsworth were
very able men, and the only three very able men from any
State who worked together ; and, secondly, because Connec-
ticut, being neither one of the largest nor one of the smallest
States, held a position of great influence as a mediator between
the two classes of States.
In the same volume (Vol. V. 2d ser. p. 313) Judge Cham-
berlain gave an account of the sale of the Aspinwall-Barlow
Library in New York, February 3-8, 1890. This sale at-
tracted great attention in Boston, as the City Council had made
a special appropriation of $20,000 for the purchase of rare and
costly books on American history not to be found in the Public
Library. He recounts the history of the Library, so far as it
could be discovered, and gives a statement of the valuable
purchases made from it, of which a complete list can be found
in Bulletin of the Public Library, No. 82, October, 1890, pp.
359-376. The most important acquisitions were a Latin copy
of the first work ever printed about the discovery of America
— a translation of the First Letter of Columbus to the King
and Queen of Spain in 1493. The price paid was $2,900 ; and
though the copy is not unique, it is very rare, as only four other
copies are known,-— two in the British Museum, one in the
Royal Library in Munich, and one in that of Mr. Bray ton Ives
in New York. It has been claimed for this edition that it is
the earliest of all that were published ; but this is not Mr. Win-
sor's opinion, who states that there may be about thirty copies
known of the eight editions, and of all these not more than
five or six are ever likely to come on the market. 1 The Trus-
tees of the Library immediately published a facsimile of the
letter, in the Library Bulletin referred to, with a translation
into English bj r Mr. R. H. Major; but as that translation was
made from a different Latin text, of another edition, the pres-
ent writer, at the request of his colleagues, prepared a new
translation, which was printed separately in 1891. Besides
the Columbus Letter there was purchased, for the sum of
16,500, " A true copie of the Court Booke of the Governor and
Society of Massachusetts Bay in New England." This is the
most perfect copy known of the first volume (in manuscript)
of the Massachusetts Colony Records, and contains historical
matter of great importance nowhere else to be found. The
1 2 Proceedings, vol. v. p. 307.
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 133
precise date of the copy, though very early, has not been ascer-
tained ; but it is certain that some marginal notes are in the
handwriting of Governor Richard Bellingham, which adds
weight to the suggestion that this was the official copy. Inas-
much as this costly purchase was made solely to prevent so im-
portant an historical document relating to our own State from
passing into other than Massachusetts hands, it seems to be
eminently fitting that the Commonwealth should assume the
cost and the ownership, and that its final resting-place should
be in the State Library, as a companion to the manuscript
volume of Governor Bradford's History. 1
To Vol. VI. 2d ser. p. 258, of our Proceedings Judge Cham-
berlain contributed a " Memorial of Daniel Leonard," Chief
Justice of Bermuda, to the Lords Commissioners of the Treas-
ury in reference to his salary in that office, and called attention
to the singular circumstance that it was nearly fifty years after
the publication of the " Massachusettensis" Letters, in reply
to those of John Adams, under the signature of " Novanglus,"
before Adams learned that their author was Leonard, having
always attributed them to Jonathan Sewall. On page 400
of the same volume he showed that John Trumbull, in his
" McFingal," had alluded to the controversy in a way that points
to Leonard as the author, and makes it quite clear that it was
not Sewall. Later, on page 401, he gave certain particulars
relative to Nathaniel Rogers, a Boston merchant, a graduate of
Harvard, in 1762, who contributed the preface to Wood's
"New England's Prospect.'' Rogers wrote from Boston to
Thomas Whately, in London, December 12, 1768, one among
the " Hutchinson Letters," in which he proposes his own
appointment to the place of Secretary of the Colony, when
Andrew Oliver, then Secretary, should be advanced to the
Lieutenant-Governorship. His death, in 1770, defeated this
purpose. On page 433 of the same volume he printed a " Me-
morial of Captain Charles Cochrane," presumably addressed to
Lord George Germaine, setting forth his military career in this
country from the arrival of the British army at Boston in 1774.
Captain Cochrane was killed at Yorktown, October 17, 1781,
the only officer of the British army who fell during the siege.
To Vol. VII. 2d ser. p. 127, of our Proceedings Judge
Chamberlain contributed an article on " Governor Winthrop's
1 It was printed in 1890 in Whitmore's " Bibliographical Sketch of the Laws
of the Massachusetts Colony," p. xxv, and in 1904 in Noble's " Records of the
Court of Assistants," vol. ii. p. 115.
134 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Estate," with a facsimile of an unrecorded deed from him to
John Newgate of lands in Rumney Marsh (Chelsea), drawn and
witnessed by Thomas Lechford, the lawyer, now in the pos-
session of Charles P. Greenough, Esq. He adds: " Winthrop's
allotment is in plain sight of my own house, and in the last
thirty years I have often climbed its rounded height, and never,
I think, without consciousness that it was once Winthrop's ;
but not until within a few months have I known that it was
in any way associated with so pathetic an incident in the life
of one who by great service and high character gained the
esteem and love of his contemporaries, and has since taken his
place among the founders of states." The " pathetic incident "
referred to was the serious impairment of Governor Winthrop's
property, owing to the rascality of his bailiff, James Luxford,
by which he lost everything but honor. Later in the same
volume (p. 214) he took part in the discussion on " The
Genesis of the Massachusetts Town," carried on between
Mr. Adams, Mr. Goodell, Professor Channing, and himself!
In his portion he develops at considerable length arguments
employed in his paper upon u The New Historical School " ;
but devotes especial attention to the k * parochial theory,"
which traces the origin of the New England town to the Eng-
lish parish. In this connection he studies with great care the
reasoning of Toulmin Smith, who claims that in England the
parish antedates the town, and that its original functions were
secular and not ecclesiastical, and shows the impossibility of
its application to the origin of New England towns. As to
their origin he says that there are at least three theories, — that
they were native to the soil, that they were copies of English
prototypes as those were of German, or that they were essen-
tially reproductions of the English parish. Judge Chamberlain
argues for the first theory, — that the origin and development
of the town were due to certain conditions peculiar to them-
selves. The sporadic settlements in New England were made
on territory not capable of instant and effective protection by
an acknowledged, sovereign, so that the inhabitants were forced
to postpone communal affairs to affairs of state, such as war and
peace, territorial limits, jurisdiction, and defence. From the
first those village communities exercised certain rights and
performed certain duties, not unlike those which afterwards ap-
pertained to them as incorporated towns. By common consent
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 135
they divided some lands among themselves, and held other
lands for common use ; in both cases assuming corporate owner-
ship, so far at least as to make good title in the allottees. Then
followed, later, the erection of these communities into bodies
politic, owing their corporate existence to, and exercising all
their functions in strict subordination to the paramount
power, the State. Finally, as early as 1636, there was promul-
gated in Massachusetts a setting forth of their rights, powers,
and duties with a completeness and precision to which the
advanced civilization of two and a half centuries has found
little to add. He then goes into a detailed account of all those
original scattered settlements by name, arguing that their
records from what may be called the historic period, though
meagre, throw some light upon the antecedent period. Finally,
he enters into an examination of Mr. Adams's paper, which had
preceded his own, and shows in what respects they agree and
in what they differ.
In Vol. VIII. 2d ser. p. 108, treating of " The Transfer of
the Colony Charter," he showed that the King's Charter, dated
March 4, 1629, granted to the purchasers from the Plymouth
Council, constituted them a body corporate with power to
establish two governments, — one for themselves as a corpora-
tion in England, and another for the colonists or plantation in
Massachusetts Bay, and that this dual government under the
Charter has been misunderstood by many writers, including
Mr. Doyle in his "History of the Puritan Colonies." On
page 123 of the same volume may be found an article by him
on " The Talcott Papers," which form Volume IV. of the Col-
lections of the Connecticut Historical Society. These consist
of papers, correspondence, and documents (chiefly official)
during Joseph Talcott's governorship of the Colony of Con-
necticut, 1721-1741. The most interesting subject comprised
in this volume has to do with the celebrated law-suit of John
Winthrop, grandson of Governor John Winthrop, of Connec-
ticut, against his sister Ann, wife of Thomas Lechmere. Ac-
cording to the laws of Connecticut, the landed estate of John
Winthrop's father, Wait Winthrop, dying intestate, would be
distributed by giving a double portion to the oldest son and
the remaining third to his sister. But, dissatisfied with this
division, he claimed the whole of the realty, as he would be
entitled to do by the laws of England, on the ground that the
136 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Colony law was invalid, being in contravention of the Charter
of King Charles II., in 1662, which forbade the making of any
law " contrary to the laws of this realm of England." This
was not the view taken by Thomas Lechmere and his wife,
and in 1724 they began proceedings to recover one-third of
the real estate. These proceedings, brought before different
courts in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and England, terminated
in a decree of the King in Council, February 15, 1728, which
declared the Connecticut law void, reversed the judgments of
her courts, and gave the whole real estate to John Winthrop.
The appalling result of this decree can be easily understood ;
it affected every person in Connecticut ; it reversed the policy
of the distribution and the settlement of estates, which had
prevailed from the beginning in Connecticut and the other
New England colonies ; it unsettled the foundations of prop-
erty, and threatened universal litigation in families. In this
alarming exigency the first question was as to the likelihood
of the reversal of the decree as matter of law ; or if not,
whether the King by a supplementary charter would rescind
that clause, which forbade their passing any law contrary to
the law of England ; and if this lay outside of his power or
will, then could and would Parliament do so? In the un-
settled state of the royal prerogatives Connecticut might well
doubt whether to seek relief from the King or from Parlia-
ment ; and as it turned out, she could apply to neither with
safety. Judge Chamberlain gives a most interesting narrative
of every step taken in the long course of proceedings by the
various counsel of Connecticut before the King in Council and
the Board of Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, from
1728 down to July 18, 1745, when, after a case, essentially the
same, carried by appeal from Massachusetts to the King in
Council, had been decided differently, and the Massachusetts
law, although contrary to the English law, had been sustained,
the original decree was reversed, the ancient law restored,
and the peril to the charter avoided. Incidentally Judge
Chamberlain discusses the question of the constitutional rela-
tions of the Colonies to the King and to Parliament, in their
progress towards independence of both. He shows that the
Colonies in their disputes about their boundaries, or conflicting
grants within their own limits, based their respective claims on
grants from the King as rightful owner of the fee of lands dis-
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 137
covered under the English flag ; yet, when their exigencies
required, they sought the intervention of Parliament against
the King, and whenever they deemed it safe, they practically
denied the authority of both. So Parliament, though recog-
nizing the King's property in colonial lands, and his jurisdiction
over their inhabitants, yet gradually began to invade his pre-
rogatives, and finally transferred them to itself. The British
statutes are full of acts regulating colonial domestic trade,
manufactures, finance, and internal government, all of which
are really prerogative matters. Thus we see that colonial
affairs were an important factor in British constitutional
progress.
In Vol. IX. 2d ser. p. 105, Judge Chamberlain brought to
the attention of our Society the fact that the inhabitants of
Chelsea, on December 14, 1781, made a contribution of
money "for the distressed inhabitants of South Carolina and
Georgia, who are driven from their habitations by the British
troops." No mention of this had ever been made by any
historian of Massachusetts, known to him, and it seems to
have been entirely forgotten.
To Vol. X. 2d ser. p. 463, he contributed some extracts
from a lost Diary of Samuel Holten, a member of the Conti-
nental Congress, from Massachusetts, 1778-1783; and also a
paper, believed to be in the handwriting of William Paca, a
signer of the Declaration of Independence, from Maryland,
containing the substance of a conversation of Mr. James
Wilson, a signer of the Declaration and afterwards Judge of
the Supreme Court of the United States, about the serious
condition of American affairs in March, 1778. On page 503 of
the same volume he printed certain extracts from manuscripts
of General William Chamberlin, relating to the Battle of
Bennington, and some doggerel verses descriptive of the
fight.
To Vol. XI. 2d ser. pp. 286-299, he contributed an inter-
esting review of the principal contents of the Bowdoin and
Temple Papers, then just published by our Society. He
believes that these writings will enhance the already high
reputation of James Bowdoin, and serve to modify somewhat
the historic judgment respecting his son-in-law, Sir John
Temple, as well as to throw light upon the true history of
the American Revolution and upon two conspicuous actors
18
138 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
therein. Incidentally he criticises Bancroft's historical work,
as impaired by its manifest partisanship, notwithstanding its
great and manifest excellences. Judge Chamberlain wonders
why James Bowdoin is never mentioned with " the Otises, the
Adamses, the Warrens, and the Hancocks," for he rendered
services second to those of no other, and under circumstances
which ordinarily disqualify a man for leadership in a revolu-
tion. Neither his independent fortune, nor his aristocratic
position, nor his personal friendships, nor that conservatism
which culture is supposed to engender, swerved him by a
hair's breadth, or for a moment deadened his zeal in the
patriotic cause till its complete triumph. Judge Chamberlain's
opinion of Temple is somewhat qualified; his abilities and his
services to the cause of the patriots are beyond question, but
his connection with the abstraction and transmission to Boston
of "The Hutchinson Letters" implies such a violation of
the sacredness of private correspondence that it is doubtful
whether he is entitled to share in that charitable consideration
which all will readily accord to others of the Boston patriots.
The Bowdoin and Temple Papers are of great value in cor-
recting popular errors in regard to the causes of the American
Revolution. They prove that the Grenville policy of drawing
a revenue from the Colonies, after the excessive expenditure
incurred in the subjugation of Canada, was intended to support
the expense of the military establishment in the Colonies, and
not to be applied to the payment of the debt thus incurred ; also
that the modification of the charter in Massachusetts, in 1774,
was a plan duly considered and determined upon without
special reference to any particular exigency, and not a malig-
nant exercise of power provoked by the destruction of the tea
in 1773. So, too, the " Molasses Act " of 1773, which caused
much discontent in Massachusetts, as seriously affecting one
of her great industries, — that of distilling rum from molasses
for West India consumption, — was made inoperative by rea-
son of the great inducements it offered to smuggling ; and its
enforcement was one of the causes of the Revolution. And,
finally, the Stamp Act of 1765 was preceded by a careful
investigation of the resources of the Colonies, and an endeavor
to learn what subjects and what mode of taxation were least
objectionable to the Colonists. At the November meeting of
this Society, 1897, Judge Chamberlain joined in the tributes
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 139
to the memory of Justin Winsor, dwelling especially upon the
admirable character of his administration of the Boston Public
Library, his method of historical composition, and his unusual
qualities as a presiding officer.
The last time Judge Chamberlain took part in our pro-
ceedings was at the June meeting, 1900, when he spoke ex-
temporaneously on the social and economical revolution in
New England, which began about fifty years ago, and which
seemed to him to have produced far greater and more important
changes than the political revolution that preceded it. He
gave some interesting reminiscences of his own boyhood on
the banks of the Merrimac, of the emigration to the Western
States, of the decline of the rural districts, and of the effects
consequent upon the opening of the first long railroad line.
As a writer upon historical topics Judge Chamberlain first
attracted attention by a notable address before the Webster
Historical Society, January 18, 1884, after he had passed his
sixty-second year, on " John Adams the Statesman of the
American Revolution." In the report of the Council of this
Society for that year the present writer said of that address
that " he has traced the secret springs of that great movement
with a depth of philosophical insight superior to any previous
treatment of the subject." This estimate of the value of that
study has been confirmed by the opinion of numerous students
of history. Let me dwell briefly here upon certain considera-
tions that were either specially brought out or were put in a
new light in this address. The period of John Adams's life
included was the nine years covered by the American Revo-
lution, and the principal object of the paper was to point out
how there can justly be claimed for him the foremost place
among such statesmen as Samuel Adams, John Jay, Thomas
Jefferson, and even Benjamin Franklin. It was because John
Adams possessed two of the prime faculties of a great states-
man, " the historic imagination, which develops nationality
from its germ ; and clear intuitions of organic constitutional
law," It was especially this sublime intuition of nationality
which distinguished him among his contemporaries. When
the declaration of the Continental Congress, September, 1774,
went forth, the cause of Massachusetts became the cause of
all the Colonies ; it was nationalized, and this was John
Adams's greatest feat in statesmanship. The value of this
140 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
politic stroke became apparent in the next session of Congress
in May, 1775. He then developed his plan of severing at
once every political tie which bound the separate Colonies to
Great Britain through their royal governments, and of laying
the basis for independence by the erection of State govern-
ments in their stead ; this eventuated in the Declaration of
Independence.
When John Adams entered public life, in 1774, he was
probably well qualified to conduct causes and to argue
questions of public law before any tribunal sitting in West-
minster Hall, and he might have represented with distinction
any English constituency in the House of Commons. By his
mental constitution as well as by special education he was
constructive ; before he tore down, he planned reconstruction.
Thus he maintained, first in Massachusetts and later in the
Continental Congress, that the people of the Colonies were
actually living under constitutional governments that had
been developed gradually among themselves, and not living
under the royal charters ; these constitutions he claimed were
inviolable. As a consequence acts which under the royal
charters would have been rebellion to the British constitution
were, on the contrary, a justifiable and patriotic defence of
the constitutional liberties of the people. The Colonists
claimed all the rights of Englishmen, and while they never
disputed the reasonable exercise of its powers by Parliament,
they repudiated the assumption that colonial legislation or
colonial courts of law could be controlled by the royal
prerogative.
Judge Chamberlain does not find the causes of the Ameri-
can Revolution in such acts of provocation as the passage of
the Stamp Act, Writs of Assistance, and the attempt to tax
the Colonies without representation, as is the generally ac-
cepted opinion. These were the occasion rather than the
cause of the Revolution. They only hastened a crisis which
could not have been averted. The true causes lay in the
innate temper of the Colonists, their English love of freedom,
their jealousy of commercial interference, and their increasing
reliance upon their charters as the real foundations of their
governments and of their political rights.
But what attracted most attention in this address was the
assertion that " the American Revolution in its most vital and
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 141
most potent force was religious rather than political." He
claims that the encroachment of the English Church upon
the New England ecclesiasticism, and the Puritan apprehen-
sion that it would become the State religion, irritated and
alarmed the Puritan mind, until the Revolution followed as a
consequence. In Virginia it was otherwise ; there u it was
essentially a question of taxation " ; the Colonists there were
mainly identified with the English Church, and there could
arise no ecclesiastical issue. Subsequently he qualified this
statement by adding " it was one cause ; no one claims that it
was the sole cause." In a note appended to the reprint of
the address he says, " Notwithstanding what I say about
Ecclesiasticism as a cause of the Revolution, some of my
critics have substituted the for a." This seems to me hardly
ingenuous, considering the prominence given to this cause
throughout the course of his argument. His view seems to be
developed from John Adams's opinion, quoted by him in an-
other note to the reprint, that " the apprehension of Episcopacy
contributed fifty years ago as much as any cause to arouse the
attention of the common people. . . . The objection was not
merely to the office of a bishop, but to the authority of Par-
liament over the Colonies." x In still another note Judge
Chamberlain adds : " When this address was delivered, in
1884, it was, so far as I had noticed, the earliest historical
presentation of ecclesiasticism (associated with political lib-
erty) as one of the causes which brought on the Revolution.
I restricted the influence to Massachusetts and Virginia."
Naturally he attributed a somewhat overweening importance
to the special cause that he believed to have been his own
discovery. In the same note he continues, " By some inad-
vertence at the time when this paper was preparing I failed to
consult Foote's ' Annals of King's Chapel.' Had I read this
work I should have seen that I had been anticipated in my
views, and have acknowledged the industrious research, can-
dor, good judgment, and literary ability which, as I think, have
been combined in an equal degree in no historical work by
an American since Belknap's ' History of New Hampshire.'
Had I done so, it would have saved me vast labor and much
thought, which I do not, however, now regret, for I was
enabled to form an independent judgment, which happens to
1 Works, vol. x. p. 185.
142 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
accord with that of Mr. Foote." Unquestionably these novel
views of Judge Chamberlain attracted much attention and
were widely commented upon in private communications and
in the public press. They met with almost universal approval
at the time, as not only new but true. There were some who
dissented, it is true, but Judge Chamberlain always pleased
himself with believing that his views have been generally
accepted as true by the writers of later historical monographs.
This cannot be said, however, of one of the latest studies of
the subject, " The Anglican Episcopate and the American
Colonies," by Arthur Lyon Cross. 1
What is regarded by many as the ablest of Judge Chamber-
lain's historical writings is the chapter on " The Revolution
Impending," contributed in 1888 to Vol. VI. of Winsor's
" Narrative and Critical History of America." This was
written at about the same time as a paper read before the
American Historical Association at its Boston meeting in
May, 1887, on "The Constitutional Relations of the American
Colonies to the English Government at the Commencement
of the American Revolution," and each study supplements
the other. These papers show a sure insight into the hid-
den springs of political activity in the Colonies ; while his
familiarity with the legislative acts of the mother country, his
knowledge of the principles of the common law, and his judi-
cial cast of mind shed a flood of light upon points obscure to
or misunderstood by writers who have not enjoyed the advan-
tage of a similar legal training. He was thus able to give a
more philosophical treatment of the causes and a wider in-
terpretation of the results of the Revolution than it had pre-
viously received. He starts with the assertion that it was no
unrelated event, but formed a part of the history of the Brit-
ish race on both continents, standing midway between the
Great Rebellion and the Revolution of 1688, on the one hand,
and the Reform Bill of 1832 and the Extension of the Suf-
frage in 1884 on the other. It was not a quarrel between two
peoples, but a strife between two parties (the conservatives
and the liberals) in both countries, that went on at the same
time and with nearly equal step. Its purpose in Great Britain
was to regain liberty, and in America to preserve it. It not
only liberated the English colonies in America, but wrought
1 Harvard Historical Studies, vol. ix. 1902.
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 143
with other forces in transferring the prerogatives of the crown
to Parliament. The American Revolution was one of those
great world movements which mark constitutional progress.
The recognition of these historical papers as of permanent
value was immediate, and gave him great satisfaction. Espe-
cially agreeable to him was the appreciation of his views
shown by a French historian, M. Charles Borgeaud, in his
" Etablissement et Revision des Constitutions en Amerique et
en Europe," who quotes at some length from his " Revolu-
tion Impending," and adds, " it would be difficult to indicate
more clearly the real character of the American Revolution."
In 1890 Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. published a selec-
tion of the more important of Judge Chamberlain's writings
in a volume of 476 pages, 8vo, under the editorial supervision
of Mr. Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library. The
book had a most cordial reception from scholars and the lit-
erary journals, and immediately passed into a second edition.
The title w r as "John Adams the Statesman of the American
Revolution, with other Essays and Addresses, Historical and
Literary." The contents comprised, besides the titular address,
the one before the American Historical Association, and three
articles selected from the Proceedings of this Society. There
were also added a review of McMaster's " History of the People
of the United States," reprinted from " The Andover Review,"
June, 1886, and one of Palfrey's " History of New England,"
taken from " The Nation" of July 10, 1890. Besides these
there were also included various occasional addresses and a
few literary articles from periodicals. The titles of these will
be given here in order that the list of his published writings
may be complete ; they comprise " Remarks on Daniel Webster
as an Orator," made at the dinner of the Alumni of Dart-
mouth College, June 28, 1882, and an address at a later dinner
on the occasion of the Dedication of a Statue of Daniel Web-
ster. At the dedication of Wilson Hall, Dartmouth College
Library, June 25, 1885, he made the principal address on
"The Scope of a College Library." To the "Dartmouth
Monthly," October, 1886, he contributed an article on " Land-
scape in Life and in Poetry " ; and at the dedication of
the Brooks Library Building at Brattleborough, Vermont,
January 25, 1887, he delivered the principal address on
" The Old and the New Order in New England Life and
144 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Letters." On December 30 of the same year he performed
the same service at the dedication of the Woods Memorial
Library Building, at Barre, Massachusetts ; the subject of
his address was " Imaginative Literature in Public Libraries."
Before the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Good Citi-
zenship he delivered an address, at Boston, on February 25,
1889, on " Josiah Quincy, the Great Mayor." To the " Cen-
tury Magazine," September, 1893, he contributed an article
entitled " A Glance at Daniel Webster," and he read a paper
before the Bostonian Society, on December 12 of the same
year, on " Political Maxims." The latest of these occasional
addresses was made at a dinner of the Sons of the American
Revolution at Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1894.
The literary quality which marks the style of these addresses
and essays is uncommon. No one can read the volume through
without recognizing their charm, and feeling regret that their
amount is so limited. The present writer has previously re-
marked that, in his opinion, for sound scholarship, critical
sagacity, sober judgment, and catholicity of taste the volume
ranks as equal to any that our generation has produced, and
he expressed the belief that it would long hold a cherished
place upon the shelves of the lovers of refined literature. The
literary critic of the " New York Times " goes still farther in
his commendation of Judge Chamberlain's style. In " a reply
to correspondents," January 7, 1899, he says : " Letters come
to the editor now and then asking for his advice as to the for-
mation of a good style, as to learning how to write, or as to
what is good style. They are the most difficult questions to
answer. But in answer to all such appeals we would say,
read Judge Chamberlain's volume. Spend some days and
nights with 'Addison, if you will, but keep others for the
Judge."
Judge Chamberlain's interest in historical studies, so early
manifested, received an equally early recognition. He was
elected a member of the New Hampshire Historical Society,
when he was only nineteen years old, the youngest member
ever chosen. Shortly afterwards he was made a Correspond-
ing Member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries at
Copenhagen, Denmark. Besides his membership in our
own Society he was elected a Corresponding Member of
the New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania Historical
1906.] MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN. 145
Societies, and a Resident Fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, in the Class of Political Economy and
History.
His professional and public duties would seem to have left
him little time for other work ; but after he came to the
Public Library we have seen that he was frequently called
upon to deliver addresses, and his stores of knowledge were
always at the service of those who sought him ; his help
was often asked by writers whose researches had led them to
the literary treasures under his keeping ; this was freely and
gladly rendered, and has often been gratefully acknowledged.
Judge Chamberlain was of a very social disposition, a most
agreeable companion, delightful in conversation, — a truly
" clubable man," as Dr. Johnson called Boswell ; and his
membership in the St. Botolph and Tavern Clubs was a
source of great happiness to him in his later years.
For several years his health had been precarious, and
finally disease of the heart, accompanied by an acute attack
of Bright's disease, developed, and he died on the 25th of June,
1900, having just completed his seventy-ninth year. His
funeral took place from the little Congregational Trinitarian
Church near his home, with which he had been connected
more than twenty years, having been a member of the com-
mittee which erected it. The services were very largely
attended by members of the city government of Chelsea,
representatives of the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public
Library, and members of this Society, besides many relatives
and friends. His body was laid to rest in Danvers Cemetery
by the side of his wife, in accordance with his own request.
Twenty years before his death he had printed in a local
newspaper " The History of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh,
and Pullen Point"; and several years subsequently the city
of Chelsea appropriated a few hundred dollars to be expended
by him in gathering materials and expanding his work. He
continued at this task steadily for years, but it grew rapidly
under his hands, and after the unexpected discovery of new
material, it became apparent to him that he would not live
to complete it. He accordingly made provision by his last
will that the unfinished material should be placed in the pos-
session of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the sum
of $5,000 be paid over to it by his executors to complete and
19
146 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar,
print the work, with an additional two-ninths of the residue of
his estate, after the payment of certain legacies.
At first certain of the heirs-at-law threatened to oppose the
probating the will, on account of their objection to some
bequests contained in it, — not, however, to those given to this
Society. These objections were ultimately withdrawn, and
the will allowed, and at the Annual Meeting of this Society
in April, 1901, the President announced the receipt from the
executors of the incomplete manuscript of The History of
Chelsea, with ten bound folio volumes of manuscripts, plans,
engravings, photographs, etc., used in its preparation. Two
years later, at the Annual Meeting in 1903, the Treasurer
reported that some questions had arisen under the will, and
the instructions of the Supreme Judicial Court had been re-
quested ; it was expected that these w r ould soon be handed
down, when it could be ascertained just what sum would be
available for the purposes intended by Judge Chamberlain,
but that it would be much less than had been anticipated by
him. At the December meeting of the same year the Treas-
urer informed the Society that a part of the bequest had
been paid over, and thereupon a committee, consisting of the
President, the Treasurer, and the present writer, was ap-
pointed to publish The History of Chelsea. At the following
Annual Meeting in April, 1904, the Treasurer reported that
he had received from the executors the sum of $5,520 on
account of the bequest, and that a further sum of about an
equal amount was expected on the final settlement of the
estate.
The Committee of Publication has intrusted the prepara-
tion for the press of the manuscript and illustrative ma-
terial to Miss Jenny Chamberlain Watts, a relative of Judge
Chamberlain, who had proved her capacity for such work by
her valuable notes contributed to " The Diary of John Quincy
Adams," published in the Proceedings of this Society, and
other literary work ; and to Mr. William R. Cutter, Librarian
of the Woburn Public Library, the author of the History
of Arlington ; and it is expected that the printing of the
history will be begun in the immediate future.
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 147
MEMOIR
OF
THEODORE LYMAN.
BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
From the records of the Proceedings of the Society for the
November meeting of 1869 it appears that u Mr. Theodore
Lyman, of Brookline, was elected a Resident Member." His
death was announced at the October meeting, 1897. His
membership in the Society lacked two months only of cover-
ing the full period of twenty-eight years. In order of seniority
his name at his death stood fourteenth on our resident mem-
bership roll.
Born in the family mansion on the well-known Lyman estate
in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the 23d of August, 1833, re-
siding nearly all his life in the house on the beautiful Brook-
line property inherited by hiin from his father, Colonel Lyman
died at Nahant on the 9th of September, 1897. The father,
after whom the son was named, had also been a member of the
Society ; but, elected in April, 1823, he resigned in May, 1836.
Of English stock, the Lymans were transplanted to New Eng-
land in early colonial days ; for the first Lyman, Richard by
name, was one of those, about threescore in number, who came
out in the ship " Lyon " in company with Margaret, wife of Gov-
ernor John Winthrop, and her children, and also "the Apostle"
Eliot. Some sixty years later the Rev. Cotton Mather quaintly
wrote of John Eliot, — " He came to New England in the
month of November, A. D. 1631, among those blessed old Plant-
ers, which laid the Foundations of a remarkable Country,
devoted unto the Exercise of the Protestant Religion, in its
purest and highest Reformation." This Cotton Mather might
equally well have written of John Eliot's fellow emigrant,
Richard Lyman ; for, among the divines subsequently preach-
148 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
ing this " purest and highest Reformation " was Isaac Lyman,
a descendant of Richard in the fourth generation. A graduate
of Yale (1747), Isaac Lyman was in due time ordained pastor of
the church at Old York in what was then, and for over seventy
years afterwards, denominated the District of Maine ; but in
the latter part of the eighteenth century his son, the first of
four Theodores, moved to the Massachusetts Baj\ Subse-
quently a successful man of business, he laid the foundations
of the family fortunes. The second Theodore (1792-1849),
born in Boston, and graduated at Harvard (1810), studied
two years at Edinburgh, and later travelled somewhat
in eastern Europe, then an unusual experience for an Amer-
ican. A man of considerable note in the community in
which he lived, active politically and a consistent Federalist,
General Lyman, as he was called because of the rank he had
held in the Massachusetts militia, was also the author of
several books not without reputation at the time, though
now forgotten. For two years (1834-1835) he was Mayor
of Boston ; in which capacity he is chiefly remembered in con-
nection with the so-called Garrison mob of October 21, 1835.
Previous to that, however, he had, in 1828, been defendant in
a suit for criminal libel brought by Daniel Webster, then
recently elected to the United States Senate from Massa-
chusetts. When revived in the cold perspective of history
the humorous aspect of this somewhat cumbrous legal pro-
ceeding distinctly predominates ; but, at the time, it excited
no little public interest. Involving great names, it was,
in point of fact, a veritable teapot tempest, in the prog-
ress of which a mere mole-hill was, for the time being, made
to assume a truly mountainous aspect. The incident, curi-
ously illustrative of the conditions and temper of the time, has
recently been made the subject of an exceptionally entertain-
ing historical monograph. 1 It had its origin in certain alle-
gations contained in an article written by General Lyman,
and published in the Boston " Jackson Republican," a paper
of which he was one of the proprietors. Though a warm par-
tisan in politics, General Lyman, besides being most public-
spirited, was essentially a man of character and refinement.
It is needless, therefore, to say that the libel suit in question,
1 A Notable Libel Suit. By Josiah H. Benton, Jr. Boston : 1904. Privately
printed.
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 149
however " criminal " in name and form, was instituted for
political reasons, and brought no personal discredit on the
defendant. He had merely in a controversial newspaper article
used rather strong language, and been somewhat careless in his
statements touching persons. The humor of the thing, how-
ever, lay in the fact that the shaft, in itself neither particu-
larly barbed nor sped with especial vigor, was aimed at J. Q.
Adams ; but, in this case also, " the damned arrow glanced
aside," and not only hit Mr. Webster, with whom General
Lyman naturally and warmly affiliated, but pierced what
at that particular juncture was with the " Defender of the
Constitution " a very vulnerable and sensitive part. None the
less the sum total of General Lyman's offence was nothing
worse than extreme partisanship working, through historical
inadvertence, to quite unanticipated results. Both the crim-
inal libel suit and the Garrison mob were, however, mere inci-
dents in the life of one closely identified both as originator and
benefactor with some of our most valuable reformatory insti-
tutions ; and in that connection the second Theodore Lyman
still stands high in the estimation of the community of which
in his day he was in no small degree typical. 1
About 1820 General Lyman married Miss Mary Henderson
of New York, long afterwards referred to by one who knew
the Lymans well as " a lady of rare personal beauty and ac-
complishments." Three daughters and a son were the issue
of the marriage ; one daughter and the son alone survived the
parents. Mrs. Lyman died (August 5, 1836) thirteen years
before her husband, whose death took place July 17, 1849,
when the third Theodore, the subject of this memoir, was
just completing his sixteenth year. Left to himself thus
early with what was in those days considered an ample for-
tune, two years later (1851) young Lyman entered Harvard,
1 There is an appreciative sketch of the second Theodore Lyman by L. M.
Sargent in paper number fifty-six of his book entitled Dealings with the Dead
(vol. i. pp. 202-206). Considering the standard of private fortunes of that period
the benefactions of General Lyman were astonishingly liberal. Besides numerous
unobtrusive gifts and charities during his life, he had from time to time privately
given $22,000 to the Reform School at Westborough. By testamentary bequests
he left an additional sum of $50,000 to that institution, and $10,000 each to the
Horticultural Society and the Thompson Island Farm School. Mr. Sargent says
of him : " Frigid, and even formal, before the world, he was one of the most
warm-hearted of men, among the noiseless paths of charity, and in the closer
relations of life."
150 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
graduating in 1855. It was in many ways a somewhat
noteworthy class, that of 1855, — among others in having
two first scholars, Francis Channing Barlow and Robert Treat
Paine. It was a curious coincidence. Entering college to-
gether and being graduated from it together, as the result of
four years of marking under the system then in vogue, Bar-
low and Paine — two men curiously dissimilar in character
as in subsequent careers — came out exactly even. Aggre-
gating between 25,000 and 26,000 marks given by different
instructors in diverging and converging courses, the columns
in the two cases did not differ in result by a single unit ; nor
could the arithmetical insight of Professor Benjamin Peirce,
when applied to the problem, anywhere detect a miscalcula-
tion or reveal an oversight. So the class of 1855 had the
unique distinction of graduating two first scholars, and no
second. Among its members, besides Theodore Lyman, were
Alexander Agassiz, General F. C. Barlow, already mentioned
as one of its two first scholars, Phillips Brooks, Edward Barry
Dalton, James Kendall Hosmer, James Tyndale Mitchell, and
F. B. Sanborn. The names of five of the class are found on the
roll of membership of this Society.
The college record of the third Theodore Lyman was in a
high degree creditable to him. With a good physique, a
natural leadership among his equals and a pronounced love
of sociability, the dangers and pitfalls in his case were con-
siderable. By his father's death left to his own guidance,
with abundant means at his disposal, the temptations to idle-
ness and pleasure-seeking were great. During his first two
years of college life he seemed disposed to yield to them, giv-
ing his time to amusements rather than to efforts at class
rank ; but, subsequently, he combined the two activities. In-
deed, he and his classmate and intimate friend, Langdon
Erving, next above him in rank at graduation, were notable
in the Harvard undergraduate world of that period for the
degree of success with which this result was by them accom-
plished. Under what influences Lyman fell in his Sophomore
year was not at the time apparent, but the change was
marked. Without in any way abandoning his amusements
or restricting his inclination to sociability, his prominence in
club life, in club theatricals, in rowing, or in society, he sud-
denly went in for marks, and became a hard student. Always
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 151
intellectually quick, the result was something quite remark-
able. He rose in rank by leaps and bounds. At the close
of the Sophomore year thirty-eighth in a class numbering
seventy-one, — not even in the first half, — at the close of the
Junior year he was thirty-fourth in a class now of seventy-
four. During his first term Senior his marks for that term
were next to the highest; while, in the second, or closing,
term of the college course he was first scholar. Finally, at
graduation, the College Faculty arbitrarily assigned him
fourth place in the class. It was a college record indicative
of an exceptional man.
When, in March, 1855, it came to the choice of class officials,
Lyman was the favorite candidate for orator, in those days the
most coveted of college prizes. His friends and the more
prominent club organizations were united and earnest in his
support. The class democracy, however, looked askance.
Those composing it would have none of him. Accordingly,
after a spirited canvass, he lost the much wished for honor
by a narrow vote ; not, it had subsequently to be admitted, to
the bettering of the class-day exercises. It was, doubtless, at
the moment as great a disappointment as Lyman had ever been
called upon to face ; but, bearing himself cheerfullj% he took
his defeat in manly fashion. Possibly a sympathizing faculty
had the fact in mind when, shortly after, it came to announcing
the scholarship rank, in his case to a degree assigned by vote.
Theodore Lyman was, moreover, one of the few men of any
time who have left at Harvard abiding traces quoad under-
graduates. Early chosen into the Hasty Pudding Club, then as
now the leading social and histrionic organization among the
students, he was a conspicuous member thereof ; as also of
the Porcellian Club, of which last, from 1860 to 1866, he
acted as Grand Marshal. But it was in the Hasty Pudding
that his attributes more peculiarly shone forth. Prominent
as a performer in its theatricals, it was he who as chorister
composed, in 1854, the classic song entitled "The First
Proof of the Pudding," descriptive of the mystical origin
of that ancient and goodly fraternity. When, forty years
after graduation, Lyman was a helpless invalid at his Brook-
line home, confronting the living death which day by day
crept on him, the Hasty Pudding Club celebrated its cen-
tennial (November 22, 1895}. Of the two things in its history
152 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
to which prominence was then given, one was a repetition of its
first play, Borabastes Furioso, the other the singing of Lyman's
still familiar choral song. As things collegiate go, forty years
is a well-nigh unparalleled immortality. 1
1 In view of this fact it may be not inappropriate to reproduce this Harvard
" classic." It is merely necessary in so doing to premise that the names of Mr.
Sibley and Dr. Harris, introduced into the Lyman manuscript, were an unau-
thorized appropriation. Both sedate officials of the University Library, the
memory of Dr. Harris is not otherwise associated with mirth, music or lyrical
composition, though, for many years, it was the recognized function of Mr. Sibley
to set the tune at the commencement dinner.
" The first proof of the Pudding ! "
Words by Mr. Sibley. Song adapted to music by Dr. Harris.
Air : " So Miss Myrtle is going to marry."
Long since when our forefathers landed
On barren rock bleak and forlorn
There they left their little boat stranded
To search through the wide woods for corn.
Soon some hillocks of earth met their gaze
Like altars of mystical spell,
But within finding Indian maize j
Amazement on all of them fell. ) bis
Quoth Standish : " Right hard have we toil-ed
A dinner we '11 have before long
A pudding shall quickly be boil-ed
By help of the Lord and the corn." —
That moment the war-whoop resounded
Through forest, and mountain, and glen,
And a Choctaw savagely bounded )
To slaughter these corn-stealing men ! J bis
" Oh vile pagan ! " The Captain said he :
" 'T is true we 've been taking a horn
But though corn-ed we all of us be
We ne'er shall acknowledge the corn." —
Then a wooden spoon held in his hand
He seized his red foe by the nose,
And with pudding his belly he crammed /
In spite of his struggles and throes. ) bis
The victor triumphantly grasp-ed
The hair of his foe closely shorn
While the savage struggled and gasp-ed
O'erpowered with fear and with corn. —
"Be converted ! " the good Standish said ;
" Or surely by fire you '11 die ;
Though with ' boiled ' you thus far have been fed )
We quickly shall give you a ' fry.' " ) bis
Then straight was the Choctaw baptiz-ed
In pudding pot, smoky and warm,
While the parson him catechis-ed
Concerning the cooking-of-corn.
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 153
Graduating in July, 1855, on the 27th of November, 1858,
he being then in his twenty -fourth year, young Lyman married
Elizabeth Russell, oldest daughter of George R. Russell, of Rox-
bury, Massachusetts. On the mother's side Mrs. Russell was a
Shaw, and it so chanced that Theodore Lyman's only surviving
sister, Cora, had married a brother of Mrs. Russell. A double
connection was thus brought about, and Theodore Lyman's
sister became his aunt by marriage. But, what with Lymans,
Russells, and Shaws, with whom were combined the Sturgises,
the family connection was intricate, and, as regards numbers,
bore a not remote resemblance to the sands of the shore. His
marriage was the fortunate event in Theodore Lyman's life.
He always so esteemed it.
Already, even before graduation, Lyman had come under
the influence of Professor Louis Agassiz. Intellectually and
morally, even more perhaps than scientifically, he became one
of that teacher's disciples. As is well known, Agassiz was
endowed with remarkable personal magnetism ; he was, further-
more, always instinctively on the lookout for young men to
attach, not to himself personally, but to his pursuits. His
attention seems early to have been drawn to Lyman as a
promising subject, — a possible disciple; for Lyman combined
in himself means, position, character, and ability. His whole
life was thus influenced. And yet, as the result showed, it is
questionable whether it was the voice of science which uttered
for Lyman the clearest call. Those who knew him most
intimately both at college and in subsequent life felt by no
means sure, nor were they of one mind on that point.
When, in the case of those we have known well, the out-
come of life is settled, the temptation is strong to philosophize
over what might have been had ideal conditions existed ;
for few men are either by accident or choice placed or contrive
to work themselves into exactly the position for which nature
designed them. While nearly all men have aptitudes, such as
they are, — that is, they incline to certain pursuits in which
they can, or could, accomplish results more easily than in
Then the Puritans chanted a psalm
With chorus of Hey- rub-a-dub,
And amidst gentle music's soft charm, )
Was founded the Great Pudding Club. J bis
Theodore Lyman
1854
20
154 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
others, — those who have distinctly pronounced aptitudes are
comparatively speaking rare ; and yet more rare are those en-
dowed with that one overpowering aptitude amounting to a
call. With most men, the call, such as it is, not being clear
and controlling, the wherewithal to support life and meet
family requirements dictates vocation. But, in this respect,
Theodore Lyman was one of the fortunate. Not forced to
bread-winning toil, he could follow his aptitudes — if he had
any ! The only question in his case was to know himself.
That with his ability, application and alertness of intellect
he would accomplish excellent results and attain a degree of
distinction in any calling which he might adopt, all who knew
him would be disposed to admit. That his greatest aptitude
lay in the direction of science is not so clear. He certainly
was not professorially built. Though quick of perception, it
may also be questioned whether he was a thoughtful observer.
He certainly was not a hermit, or a man of the laboratory.
The late Clarence King, eminent as a geologist, as well as a bril-
liant man sociall}', was wont to declare that the trouble with
geology was that it could not strike back. In dealing with the
rocks and strata the joy of conflict was lacking. It may well
have been somewhat the same with Lyman. Ophiurans, for
instance, may scientifically be interesting, but they indisputably
lack the social quality; and Theodore Lyman's nature craved
sociability. Indeed, in life, as in the Pudding Club, sociability
was with him the source of the purest pleasures. As years
went on, accordingly, the active human side of things more
than once asserted its claims ; and it is very questionable
whether his two years' experience in the army and afterwards
his single term in Congress did not appeal to him more
strongly and leave a more vivid recollection in his mind than
the far longer period devoted to biological work. More even
than law, science is a " jealous mistress."
Thus, the trouble with Theodore Lyman probably was that,
a many-sided man, the ambition that dominated was lacking ;
and, among those who knew him best both at Harvard and
afterwards, 'it was always an open question whether he would
not have found the place in which he could exercise his powers
with the best results both objectively and subjectively in the
more active life. Had his attention been turned to political or
social issues, and had he thus become interested in the excep-
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 155
tionally absorbing problems of the period in which he lived,
he had noticeable power of literary expression, many of the ele-
ments of leadership, and, above all, he would have thoroughly
enjoyed the game. Both in the arm}' and in Congress, he did
so. Influenced, however, by Agassiz, he made his election
otherwise.
For three years after graduation, the acolyte worked under
the eye of the master and in personal touch with him ; and
the impression Agassiz then made on him he recorded in
a published paper nearly twenty years later, shortly after
Agassiz had died (1873). * He took his degree of S.B in 1858.
In 1891 Harvard, in further recognition of his work, conferred
on him the final degree of LL.D.
Inheriting a strong sense of civic duty, from the time of
graduation young Lyman interested himself in the reforma-
tory institutions his father had originated and endowed, the
most important of which still perpetuates his name. He went
to this work also intelligently and in the true scientific spirit,
taking nothing for granted, and quite refusing to acquiesce in
existing conditions simply because they happened to exist and
to disturb them would occasion inconvenience, and possibly
cases of individual hardship. That all charitable, penal and
reformatory as well as educational institutions have a strong
tendency to work into ruts and formulas is matter of common
observation ; whether, under such circumstances, they do not
do more harm than good is an open question. Endowed by
the benevolent, often with an intelligent forecast, or at least
a half comprehension of facts and their bearing, their manage-
ment is apt to fall into the hands of what are known as good,
practical common-sense people, in whose behalf it is usually,
and truly, claimed that they are not given to theories or apt
to be carried away in pursuit of new-fangled ideas. When
this occurs, the inevitable may confidently be expected. The
institution has a strong tendency to become a retiring berth
for incompetents ; or may even nourish what it was designed
to cure, whether pauperism or crime. This tendency to unin-
telligent formalism had not failed to assert itself in the early
experience of both the institutions with which the elder Theo-
dore Lyman had concerned himself, the State Reform School,
and the Boston Asylum and Farm School for Indigent Boys,
1 Atlantic Monthly, vol. xxxiii. pp. 221-229.
156 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
on Thompson's Island. Of both, the younger Theodore Lyman
became a trustee shortly after graduation. Trouble soon en-
sued. With the exception of Lyman, the trustees of the first
named institution were removed, and he elected to go with his
associates. A long and wearisome struggle followed, — exec-
utive action, legislative investigation, remedial laws, bureau
supervision. As the result of strenuous and persistent effort, in
which Lyman bore his share, more correct methods of manage-
ment, based on scientific principles, were gradually introduced.
In the case of the Reform School those among the inmates
who were vicious beyond hope of remedy were by degrees re-
moved from contact with those whom it was possible to reform,
and the school, which was becoming a forcing house of crime, be-
came what its founders intended and its name implies. In this
slow process of regeneration, which gradually assumed shape
through the administrations of Governors Andrew and Bullock
(1861-1868), Lyman's classmate, F. B. Sanborn, was largely
concerned, as Secretary of the State Board of Charities.
Much of the time Lyman was away, but he never lost his
interest in the work of effecting a return to his father's original
scheme. At last, but not until 1884, the Massachusetts Reform-
atory was established at Concord for adults ; the age limit at
Westboro' was fixed at fifteen years, and provision was made
for the transfer to Concord of boys who proved to be unfit sub-
jects for the Reform School, which was by act of Legislature
called ' The Lyman School for Boys.' A few years later, after
the removal of the institution to a neighboring farm in the
town of Westboro', Theodore Lyman went to the school for
the dedication of the chapel, " and, as he watched the boys at
their work and play, he expressed his satisfaction at the suc-
cess of the trustees in having at last made it very nearly the
kind of school that his father had wished and hoped that it
might become."
The Lymans went abroad in 1861, about the time of the out-
break of the Civil War, and remained in Europe until the
summer of 1863. Without paying much thoughtful attention
to political issues or the principles involved in them, Theo-
dore Lyman had grown up a conservative. His family was
closely allied with those whom Charles Sumner was wont to
refer to as Lords of the Loom, so contradistinguishing them
from their allies, the Lords of the Lash. This highly rhetorical
1906.J MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 157
alliteration sounds absurd enough now ; but during Theodore
Lyman's formative period — between the time he entered Har-
vard and the time he went to Europe (1851-1861) — it meant
much. It made environment; and, coming into his political
ideas and affiliations in much the same way as he inherited his
property, Theodore Lyman naturally became what was then
denominated in Massachusetts a Webster Whig. Moreover,
a disciple of Agassiz was not likely to be also a pronounced
politician ; and it was improbable that a close student of the
Ophiuridse and Astrophytidse would give any great amount of
analytical thought to the constitutional issues arising over the
status of the African, either as an escaped fugitive or subject to
territorial legislation. Nevertheless, so far as he concerned
himself in politics, and in those days every one more or less
concerned himself, Lyman, in the great election of 1860, voted
for Bell and Everett and not for Abraham Lincoln. Then,
like every one else, he watched anxiously the gathering of the
storm. When, in April, 1861, it at last broke, he felt no call
to action. He had disapproved, and foretold ; what he pre-
dicted had come to pass. He was married and deeply inter-
ested in his scientific studies ; so, not altering his plans, he
and his wife went abroad.
While Mr. and Mrs. Lyman were in Europe, their first child
was born. This event, of course, afforded distraction ; but to
Americans constituted as they were, Europe was, in 1861 and
1862, neither an agreeable nor a restful place. A nightmare
period, one thought predominated. Sleeping, waking — the
terrific struggle going on at home was ever present to the
mind. Research and study were out of the question; the solu-
tion of scientific problems must await a more opportune occa-
sion. Nor in this respect was Theodore Lyman so constituted
as to prove an exception. His was not one of those coldly
scientific minds, self-centred and absorbed, which can look
out upon the world in a purely objective way. Essentially
human, social and companionable, he sympathized and felt.
His relations, his classmates, his intimate friends, moreover,
had thronged into the army and were in the thick of the
fight. He was in Europe, — idling! Every mail brought
letters from home or from the front, replete with one subject.
Long lists of casualties came, in which were many familiar
names, — some that were dear. His wife's brother was a
158 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
prisoner in Richmond ; the regiment to which he belonged
had been far more than decimated in battle. With Theodore
Lyman also military operations had always possessed a certain
interest, — an interest probably traceable to his father's con-
nection with the Massachusetts militia, and the effective organ-
izing work he there did as commander of the Suffolk brigade.
Thus to both Mr. and Mrs. Lyman the situation became by
degrees fairly intolerable. They must at least go home. They
were back in Brookline in June, 1863. Early in the following
month the battle of Gettysburg was fought.
By a curious coincidence that battle, and its outcome,
greatly influenced Lyman's individual conduct and subsequent
interests through life. Seven years before, in the winter of
1856, he had made a visit to the Florida waters on one of
Agassiz's errands of scientific research. He there, at Key
West, fell in with Captain George G. Meade, of the topo-
graphical engineers, then superintending the erection of light-
houses on the Florida reefs. In those days the Florida coast
afforded few accommodations for temporary sojourners, whether
for cause of health or of science, and Captain Meade had a gov-
ernment vessel at his disposal. He was eighteen years Ly-
man's senior, but only too glad to welcome him as a companion
and messmate. They proved congenial ; and an intimacy
followed, which was subsequently maintained. And now,
from Captain of Engineers in 1861, becoming, in 1863, Major-
General in command of the Army of the Potomac, Meade's
name was in every one's mouth. Just the opportunity he
desired was thus by mere chance opened to Lyman. Meade
suggested, to him by letter that he should join the head-
quarters. The Agassiz Museum now ceased to interest, and
the door of the laboratory was closed ; the pencil was laid
down. The call of science had for some time sounded fainter
and fainter amid the tumult of the mighty struggle then going
on, and in which the pupil of Agassiz was eager to take a
hand.
In the course Lyman now took he showed, also, an excep-
tional wisdom, an intelligent insight. He did not, like so
many others, — his relatives and friends, — rush at once into
a profession for which he had in no way been prepared ;
on the contrary, he gave a certain amount of consideration to
what he wanted to see and know, and what he was qualified
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 159
to do. That an army is not a more or less organized mob, or
a campaign a picnic, or a battle an elaborated row and free
fight, would seem, as propositions, to be elementary ; but in
the earlier stages of the Civil War they had not obtained a
complete acceptance. To be in the thick of the thing was
the prevalent wish, without any very clear comprehension
of what " the thing " was, or how one's presence there could
be made to contribute in greatest degree to the result desired.
Much excellent material was thus wasted.
Viewed retrospectively in the light of what has since, in
four continents, occurred, it is for those concerned in it mat-
ter of wonderment how, on either side, we contrived to work
our way through that terrific struggle with so little compre-
hension of the supremely important function of the general
staff in all considerable military operations. Though we are
essentially an organizing people, and though the exigency was
great, to the very end of the Civil War the ideas entertained
of staff duty were the vaguest possible. It was not realized
that the staff is to the army what his brain is to a man.
Commenting on the condition of affairs in this respect even
in the final stages of the struggle, a very competent critic says
of Grant's headquarters equipment, when the great and com-
plicated campaign of 1864 opened, " the organization and
arrangements made by him for the control and co-operation
of the forces in Virginia are now generally regarded by mili-
tary critics as having been nearly as faulty as they could have
been. ... It was in the nature of things impossible to make
either the armies or the separate army-corps work harmoni-
ously and effectively together. . . . But when it is considered
that Grant's own staff, although presided over by a very able
man from civil life, and containing a number of zealous and
experienced officers from both the regular army and the vol-
unteers, was not organized for the arrangement of the multi-
farious details and combinations of the marches and battles of
a great campaign, and indeed under Grant's special instruc-
tions made no efforts to arrange them, it will be apparent that
properly co-ordinated movements could not be counted upon." 1
Every deficiency here pointed out meant the unnecessary loss
of precious lives. In the operations which ensued, a system-
atic butting against breastworks was substituted for the clock-
1 2 Proceedings, vol. xix. p. 344 n.
160 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
like movement of carefully calculated combinations. It was
typical of the whole conflict.
Indeed, at the commencement of the struggle, and in the
earlier stages of it, the function of the staff was so wholly mis-
conceived that among the young men, especially those educated
at Harvard, the idea was generally entertained that the only
place for really useful service was in the company, the squad-
ron, and the regiment. A staff appointment was looked upon
as merely one of show. The line meant work and danger ; the
headquarters were synonymous with idleness, safety, and dis-
play. Practically, and from an utter failure to grasp the scope
and significance of staff functions and responsibility, there was
altogether too much of truth and reality in this idea. The
Civil War staffs throughout were largely ornamental. Yet
the idea that they were so in the nature of things — neces-
sarily so — was a delusion than which it is difficult to con-
ceive any more false and unfortunate. An unquestioning
acceptance of its truth caused the waste or misapplication of
much valuable material. A great many round pegs inserted
themselves or were thrust into square holes.
Not that the Harvard men, of whom Theodore Lyman was
a good type, did not do excellent service as regimental officers.
They did ; and, as such, in altogether too many cases they
laid down their lives. But, as compared with the staff, the
sphere of usefulness of a regimental officer is confined; and
as for his knowledge of men and operations, it is limited
to his brigade and its movements in camp and campaign, and
in action to what is taking place at his side or in his imme-
diate front. He is a pawn on a wide and complicated chess-
board. Moreover, the previous training of the typical Harvard
man specially qualified him for efficient work on the staff. He
had but to familiarize himself with its duties.
In all these respects Theodore Lyman seems to have in-
stinctively taken in the situation. Whether he did or no, the
course he pursued was at that stage of the struggle the wisest
possible course open to him. Regimental commissions, ex-
cept of the lowest grades, were after 1862 not easy to obtain.
Promotions were jealously watched ; and, in their bestowal,
experience had begun to count. Lyman could not, placed as
he was, enter the service as a subaltern ; he wanted also to
come in contact with men high in rank, and to study large
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 161
movements. After some correspondence with General Meade
the matter was arranged most satisfactorily and in an ingeni-
ous way. He was commissioned as a volunteer member of
the staff , of 'Governor Andrew, with the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel, and was, at General Meade's invitation, assigned
to special duty at the Headquarters of the Army of the Poto-
mac. He never was mustered into the service of the United
States ; he drew no pay or allowances ; he was simply the
headquarters guest and personal aide of General Meade. The
position was anomalous ; the use he could make of it de-
pended wholly on him who held it. Lieutenant-Colonel Lyman
not only made himself generally acceptable, but he was effec-
tively useful ; and, moreover, he had a range of observation
and largeness of acquaintance of which he did not fail to
avail himself. His experience was thus more interesting than
fell to any one of his friends who took part in the war. Less
brilliant, it was unique. Unquestionably that experience con-
stituted the most interesting feature of his active life, and the
portion of it upon which he subsequently looked back with
greatest satisfaction.
And yet in one respect it was to be regretted that his
position with the army was anomalous and did not admit of
that enlargement which follows promotion; for it is, and must
always remain, fairly matter of question whether Theodore
Lyman might not, after all, have found in a military envi-
ronment the largest field for the development of his peculiar
aptitudes. To those who had an opportunity there to observe
him, it would hardly occur that he was specially adapted to
large immediate command of men or to carry on complicated
field operations ; but he did possess in high degree many of
the qualifications which go to make up an accomplished mem-
ber of the staff. He would have made an admirable Inspector
General ; and, as such, have exercised a direct and most bene-
ficial influence, not on a battalion or a brigade, but on the
army as a whole. It was, perhaps, quite as unfortunate for
the service as for him that his qualities could not be, or at
any rate were not, utilized more effectively and on a larger
scale.
Even so, however, it remains to be seen whether Colonel
Lyman, as a witness on the inside, will not yet prove an im-
portant historical factor in the ultimate verdict on the great
21
162 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Grant-Lee campaign of 1864; for the true history of that
terrible struggle is yet to be written. As already intimated,
the instructive lesson to be drawn from it is the importance
of the general staff in all great operations of modern warfare.
Of this in 1864 General Grant seems to have had no adequate
comprehension. 1 He was commander-in-chief of all the Union
armies ; but the Union armies had no general staff in any
proper acceptation of the term. General J. A. Rawlins was,
nominally, Grant's chief-of-staff ; and, though from civil life
and a self-educated lawyer by profession, Rawlins was a clear-
headed, virile man. But his chief-of-staff in the campaign
of 1864 should have been to Grant what Gneisenau was to
Bliicher in 1815, or what Moltke was to the Emperor William
in 1870. This, however, is what a recent critic, himself a
West Point graduate and a general officer in close touch with
Grant's headquarters during the campaign of 1864, has re-
cently written: —
" Rawlins was from the first bitterly opposed to the persistency with
which the army was hurled in direct attack against the enemy's hastily
constructed but formidable entrenchments as at Spottsylvania Court
House and at Cold Harbor. He did not hesitate to say that the
repetition of the first fatal blunder was due to the influence of one of
1 There is an extremely interesting letter bearing on this characteristic of
General Grant, from Charles A. Dana to Secretary Stanton, dated July 13,
1863, and written from Grant's headquarters at Vicksburg. Mr. Dana through-
out that campaign was with General Grant as the special representative of the
War Department, in immediate communication with the Secretary. He had
thoroughly familiarized himself with the situation, and those in command. He
thus wrote in the letter referred to: — "Indeed, in all my observation, I have
never discovered the use of Grant's aides-de-camp at all. On the battle-field he
sometimes sends orders by them but everywhere else they are idle loafers. I
suppose the army would be better off if they were all suppressed, especially the
colonels. ... If General Grant had about him a staff of thoroughly competent
men, disciplinarians and workers, the efficiency and fighting quality of his army
would soon be much increased. As it is, things go too much by hazard and by
spasms ; or, when the pinch comes, Grant forces through, by his own energy and
main strength, what proper organization and proper staff officers would have
done already. ... In the staffs of the division and brigadier generals I do not
now recall any officer of extraordinary capacity. There may be such, but I
have not made their acquaintance. On the other hand, I have made the ac-
quaintance of some who seemed quite unfit for their places."
In this same most interesting communication Mr. Dana thus referred to
General Sherman, then in command of one corps of Grant's army: — "On the
whole, General Sherman has a very small and very efficient staff; but the
efficiency comes mainly from him. What a splendid soldier he is." Recollections
of the Civil War, pp. 74-77.
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 163
the regular officers [at headquarters] whose refrain was 'Smash 'em up —
smash 'em 'up ! ' With the same fearlessness that characterized the
imprudent utterances of ' Baldy ' Smith and of that peerless soldier
Emory Upton, Rawlins did not hesitate in conversation with me to
designate this as 'the murderous policy of military incompetents,' and
there is the best reason for believing that his remonstrances with his
Chief, emphasized as they were by the uniform failure and the fearful
losses attendant upon such attacks, had more to do with causing their
abandonment than anything else ; except perhaps the pathetic protest
of men in the ranks at Cold Harbor, who, before advancing to the
charge, pinned their names to their clothes in order that their dead
bodies might be recognized after the battle was over." x
The historic truth is that though General Grant was a man
of strong horse-sense and military instincts, as well as a most
formidable fighter, he did not have a high-grade organizing
mind. Confronted with Lee, this deficiency became apparent,
expressed in simply terrible results so far as the armies under
Grant's more immediate command were concerned ; for, un-
fortunately, those who incited to that succession of frontal
attacks, as murderous as they were futile, were not detailed
to lead them. i Had such a rule been in vogue, it is needless
to say the lives of many thousands would have been spared to
them. As it was, the Virginia campaign of 1864 was tacti-
cally discreditable and, in its methods, brutal.
Of all of this Colonel Lyman was a close witness, at once in-
telligent and observant. Realizing fully the importance of the
events, he made of what he heard and saw a careful record.
Naturally, at the headquarters of General Meade some jealousy
existed of the neighboring headquarters of General Grant. It
could not have been otherwise. An accomplished soldier,
General Meade was irritable, and, among his intimates, out-
spoken. His chief-of-staff, General A. A. Humphreys, was one
of the best officers as well as determined and skilful fighters
in the army. A trained soldier, clear-headed and reticent, the
personal relations between him and Colonel Lyman soon be-
came close. 2 The aide of Governor Andrew was thus in the
1 Manuscript Life of General Rawlins, by General James H. Wilson,
Chap. xii.
2 In his account of the operations of this campaign, published in 1883,
General Humphreys says, — " Colonel Theodore Lyman, an accomplished gentle-
man from Boston, a volunteer aide on the staff of General Meade from the
summer of 1863 to the close of the war, serving without pay or allowances,
164 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
innermost councils of the Army of the Potomac. The repeated
slaughters took place under his eyes, and at the moment he
wrote down his impressions. He was very competent so to
do. The time to make public what he thus recorded may not
yet have come ; but that his evidence will affect the ultimate
verdict on the great campaigns of which he was a witness,
those who saw him there can hardly entertain a doubt.
In his sketch of Colonel Lyman's career prepared for
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Henry P.
Bowditch says : —
"In this capacity [that of volunteer aide of Governor Andrew as-
signed to duty at the headquarters of General Meade] Colonel Lyman
served till the end of the Civil War, taking part in the battles of the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor, in the move-
ments around Petersburg and in the final surrender at Appomattox
Court House, where he was one of the few officers privileged to ride
through the Confederate lines after the surrender. During all this
period he showed an active and intelligent interest in his new work by
making almost daily sketches showing the positions of the different
corps of the Army of the Potomac. Mr. John C. Ropes, President of
the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, writes that he ' was
so much impressed with the value of these cartographic statements of the
movements of the Army of the Potomac, from the autumn of 1863 down
to and including the 9th of April, 1865, when Lee surrendered,' that he
had them all copied for the use of the Society. The same high authority
in military matters speaks also of having seen extracts from a diary
kept by Theodore Lyman during this period, ' which are as humorous
and as entertaining as any pictures of the camp and march can pos-
sibly be.' It is greatly to be hoped that this diary may in due time
be edited and published, as it cannot fail to be a valuable contribution
to our knowledge of the Civil War. Few actors in this great drama
had better opportunities of watching the succession of important his-
torical events, or minds better qualified for observing, recording, and
commenting upon them. Nor did his interest in military matters cease
with the war, for, as a member of the Military Historical Society of
Massachusetts, he had ample opportunity to discuss with his companions
passed the 5th and 6th of May with General Hancock, sending constantly brief
notes with small diagrams to General Meade, showing the progress of the
operations and giving the latest information. It was General Meade's habit to
intrust this service to Colonel Lyman, sending him to the different corps com-
manders. These little despatches are on file in the War Department and furnish
valuable information." The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865, p. 48, n. An-
other reference to Colonel Lyman is to be found in a footnote to page 55 of
the same volume.
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 165
in arms the great events in which they had all taken part. On June
11, 1877, he read a 'Review of the Reports of Colonel Haven and
General Weld on the conduct of General McClellan at Alexandria, in
August, 1862, and on the case of Fitz John Porter.'
" Lyman maintained a close and unbroken friendship with General
Meade until the death of the latter, in 1872. He then wrote an obitu-
ary notice of his old commander, which was published in Volume IX.
of the Proceedings of this Academy."
This spirited war episode was violently projected, as it were,
into the far different career Theodore Lyman had mapped out
for himself at graduation. Coming back to Boston and Brook-
line when the episode closed, he, like so many others engaged
in that struggle, resumed his old activities. His association
with Harvard, always close, became closer still. Throughout
the war, and until 1866, Grand Marshal of the Porcellian
Club, he was also a liberal subscriber to the Memorial Hall
fund, and took active interest in it as a member of the build-
ing committee. By virtue of an act passed in 1865, the
members of the Board of Overseers of the college were
thenceforth elected by the alumni; and, in 1868, Lyman was
chosen. His cousin and intimate personal friend from child-
hood, Charles W. Eliot, was chosen at the same time ; but the
name of the latter was shortly after submitted to the Board
by the Corporation for confirmation as President of the Uni-
versity. Lyman contributed efficiently towards securing favor-
able action on the nomination. His assistance, too, was needed ;
for, strange as it now seems in view of what has since oc-
curred, the choice of President Eliot was at the time by no
means unopposed. 1 It constituted in fact a new departure
for the University, entered upon with hesitation and, at the
time, viewed in many and influential quarters with grave dis-
trust. The nomination was ventured upon by the Corpora-
tion only as a last resort, and in a spirit close approaching
desperation, — the result of an instinctive conviction, slowly
and reluctantly reached, that the old order of things was
gone, — a radical organic change had come about in the com-
munity and body politic. To it the University must respond.
Yet before Mr. Eliot was named, the position had been offered
to at least one eminent gentleman more clearly in the line of
1 The final vote in the Board of Overseers was sixteen ayes and eight noes.
166 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
established and therefore safe precedent; and declined most
wisely. Thus no nomination at all similar had ever been sent
down by the Corporation to startle the Overseers except that
of Josiah Quincy, made close upon forty years before and
with five administrations intervening ; and in the case of Mr.
Quincy not only was he a man mature in years, — then fifty-
seven, — but he had long been prominent in public life. Nor
in his case also did the selection command immediate general
approval ; for, creating a new precedent of questionable char-
acter, the clergy looked askance at it, and voted accordingly.
Moreover, Mr. Quincy himself at the time remarked on the
unusual character of the proceeding : — " I would not," he
said, " have been any more astonished had they come and
asked me to preach in the Old South pulpit ! " And now
that instruction was bettered. A young scientific instructor,
of more than questionable theological orthodoxy, a professed
believer in Darwinism, suspected of agnosticism even, was
to be formally approved of as president of the typical Con-
gregational University. The nomination was referred to a
committee of the Board of Overseers ; the report of that com-
mittee, when made, was not acted upon immediately ; much
eloquence was expended ; many doubts expressed. Colonel
Lyman was then thirty-six, and only recently chosen a member
of the Board. He was one of its younger members ; but, un-
fortunately, the younger members were by no means united
in support of the proposed innovation. Colonel Lyman, how-
ever, not only took a broader view, but he knew his kinsman
well. He was so placed also as to be able to render efficient
aid. Thirty-seven years after the event, the outcome of the
experiment does not need to be dwelt upon. The cousin's
faith has been justified.
Of Colonel Lyman's scientific pursuits during the subse-
quent years, Dr. Bowditch says: —
" He was one of the original Trustees and Treasurer of the Zo-
ological Museum, a member and Secretary of the Museum Faculty, and
Assistant in Zoology. The value of his services to the Museum in
these various capacities was gratefully acknowledged by the Director,
Alexander Agassiz, who, in his Annual Report for 1896-97, thus speaks
of Lyman's scientific work : k His zoological work began with short
papers on ornithological subjects ; he subsequently became interested in
corals, and finally devoted himself specially to Ophiurans. The first
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 167
Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum was from his pen, and this impor-
tant monograph on Ophiurans was followed by numerous papers on
the same subject, treating of new species of the group. He wrote
the Report on the Ophiurans of the ' Hassler ' Expedition, of the
' Challenger,' and of the ' Blake,' which include by far the larger
number of species of Ophiurans dredged by those deep-sea exploring
expeditions.
" On the establishment of the Commission of Inland Fisheries in
1866, Theodore Lyman became its first chairman, and gave the State
devoted service for seventeen years without compensation. The story
of his disinterested labor in this field is told in the Commissioners' An-
nual Reports, many of which are from his own .pen, and are charac-
terized by a brightness of style which pleasantly relieves the gravity of
an official document.
"In 1884, as President of the American Fish Cultural Association,
at the thirteenth annual meeting held in Washington on May 13, he
delivered an address which is printed in the Nineteenth Annual Report
of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries of Massachusetts. Here he
sketches in the most charming manner the history of the fish industries
of New England from the time when the inhabitants were wont to
' dunge their grounds with codd.' He shows that fifty years after the
settlement of the country a diminution in the number of fish in the
New England rivers had already been noted, and describes the various
laws enacted for their protection, culminating in 1864-65 in modern
fish culture under the auspices of several State governments, and finally
in the appointment in 1871 of the United States Fish Commission
under the leadership of Professor Spencer F. Baird.
"The various fishery commissions of the country have, to use
Theodore Lyman's own words, c accumulated a vast amount of accurate
information concerning the numbers and variety of our fishes, their
food, manner of breeding, condition of life, migration, and stages of
growth.' Pisciculture has become a State and national industry, while
many private fish preserves have been established in various parts of
the country. Several species of Salmonidee are raised regularly for
the market, and it is highly probable that nearly all the shad now
taken in our Atlantic streams have originated in State or national
hatching establishments. These results, though important, merely
serve to indicate what great additions to the wealth of the country
may be effected when water culture is * practised as universally and
methodically as is agriculture.' When Americans shall have learned
to cultivate the water thus methodically, and shall desire to honor the
men who in their day and generation have labored to re-establish the
fisheries of the country, no name will stand higher on the list than that
of Theodore Lyman."
168 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Whatever may have been his political associations in youth
and prior to the Civil War, Theodore Lyman came out of the
war a Republican, but never an unthinking party man.
Constituted as he was, he could not well be the slave of an
organization ; and, indeed, it is very questionable whether any
man who has given close attention to scientific problems, much
less a man of really scientific turn of mind, can hold his con-
victions subject always to a majority caucus vote. So doing
calls for another order of intellect ; not inferior, possibly, but
certainly different. Voting for Abraham Lincoln in 1864,
during the reconstruction period and the two administrations
of Grant he took no active part in politics. Not improbably,
also, those eight years between 1865 and 1873 were the hap-
piest of his life, as they were the closing years of the life of his
master in science — Louis Agassiz. Physically well, happy in
his family life, prosperous in a worldly way, not yet forty
years of age, satisfied with the record and the associations he
had formed, Colonel Lyman lived, a prosperous gentleman, in
his fair paternal home at Brookline. Surrounded by friends,
he there dispensed a generous hospitality, and even once more
made his appearance on the stage as a member of Colonel
Harry Lee's locally famous amateur theatrical troupe, of
which before the war he had been the "eccentric comedian." 1
With him the world then went well ; its present was enjoy-
able, its prospects were bright.
Once only during that golden period did he come before
the public, or find himself involved in controversy ; and he
then acquitted himself with spirit and successfully. His
opponent was a formidable one, no other than Mr. Wendell
Phillips. Politically, it will be remembered the year 1869 fell
in a troubled period. The slave had been emancipated, and
the Confederate disfranchised ; a political experiment of novel
character was in progress. In a number of communities the
white was to be ruled by the black, through the intervention
of certain alien adventurers receiving the countenance and
support of the national government. In the wisdom, justice
and success of this experiment, if unswervingly carried out to
its logical end, Mr. Phillips had implicit faith. This faith he
did not fail to preach ; and in the course of one of his deliver-
ances he had occasion to refer, by way of illustration, to the
i Memoir of Henry Lee, pp. 25, 26, 32, 66.
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 169
Garrison mob of 1834. In so doing, he made a characteristic
and wholly gratuitous assault on Colonel Lyman's father, who,
it has already been mentioned, was, at the time of that highly
discreditable demonstration, Mayor of Boston. As such, he
was, of course, responsible for the city's peace. Oratorical and
declamatory assaults by Mr. Phillips, whether on the living or
the dead, were at that time in no way uncommon. Utterly
indifferent to correctness in his statement of facts, ingeniously
vituperative in language and sincerely desirous of inflicting
pain, it might be said of the great agitator even more truly
than of the eminent Englishman of whom it was first remarked,
that " he made of his philanthropy a stalking-horse from be-
hind which he let fly the shafts of his individual malignity."
To become engaged in controversy with him partook a good
deal of the character of a noisy street wrangle with some noto-
rious town-scold ; but, none the less, Mr. Phillips indisputably
held the popular ear. Had the attack been made on himself,
Theodore Lyman would almost unquestionably have ignored
it, — as before, and after, Chief Justice Shaw, Phillips Brooks
and Judge E. R. Hoar silently ignored similar attacks from the
same quarter; or possibly he might, in characteristic fashion,
have turned it aside by some good-natured but clever repartee,
as later he did a quite dissimilar onslaught made on him by
Senator Hoar. 1 It so chanced, however, that General Lyman's
mayoralty had been marked by two lawless outbreaks, neither
of which has ever been forgotten, — the destruction of the
Ursuline convent, in what is now Somerville, on the night of
August 11, 1834, and the Garrison mob of October 1, fourteen
months later (1835). In those early days of city government
the police force of Boston amounted to nothing. Practically,
there was none. Ununiformed, few in number, those com-
posing the city constabulary loitered through the streets with
canes, in no way different from the walking-stick in ordinary
use, as their sole insignia of office. They bore the aspect of
respectable citizens, somewhat elderly, perhaps, and, it might
be, a little reduced in circumstances. In cases of riot or mob
outbreak recourse was therefore had sometimes to the militia,
sometimes to the fire department, or, in cases of exigency, to
the mounted troop known as the National Lancers, a showy
1 On this occasion he with much humor compared himself to the man who
boasted among his neighbors that he had "just been cuffed by the King."
22
170 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
organization composed chiefly of Boston truckmen. In his
Life of his father, Edmund Quincy deals with this subject,
and describes both the inadequacy of the force and the ingen-
ious expedients to which the earlier mayors were obliged
to have recourse when the public peace was in jeopardy. 1
Mayor Lyman, therefore, was not fairly open to censure on
the score of inefficiency in not promptly suppressing either or
both of the two outbreaks which made memorable his terms
of office, and in which, it was long subsequently observed, u a
portion of the people of Boston demonstrated the terrible
truth, that they were not to be outdone in fury, even by the
most furious abolitionist, who ever converted his stylus into
a harpoon, and his inkhorn into a vial of wrath." 2 The work
of the abolitionist had now been accomplished; but aboli-
tionists were somewhat famous for length as well as vindic-
tiveness of recollection, and, on the occasion referred to, the
" silver-tongued orator " of the cause fairly let fly his " vial of
wrath " at the former chief magistrate of Boston, then over a
score of years in his grave. Not unnaturally, that magistrate's
son was sensitive on the subject; Colonel Lyman at once met
the onslaught of Mr. Phillips with a flat newspaper denial
of the correctness of his allegations. The flood-gates were now
open ; repetition of the charge, rejoinder, and surrejoinder fol-
lowed in quick succession. Mr. Phillips was in his element,
— thoroughly happy. On the other hand, his opponent, so
far as the facts and their presentation were concerned, had
distinctly the advantage. For a time the controversy was
carried on in alternate press contributions and platform utter-
ances ; the printed broadside then made its appearance ;
finally, Colonel Lyman closed his side of the controversy witli
a pamphlet statement 3 which left nothing more to be said.
As to facts, it was conclusive; while, as respects spirit, direct-
ness and scholarly finish it left no room for doubt as to the
grasp of the writer, or the estimate in which he held the pro-
fessional agitator and pseudo-reformer. Circling high above
him in his presentation, Lyman, hawklike, pounced down on
his opponent. His friends felt no surprise ; they knew it was
in him to do it.
1 Life of Josiah Quincy, pp. 396, 397 ; see also, in the case of Mayor Lyman,
Memorial History of Boston, vol. iii. pp. 238-243.
2 Dealings with the Dead, vol. i. p. 205.
8 Papers relating to the Garrison Mob, edited by Theodore Lyman, 3d,
Boston, 1870.
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 171
Going abroad shortly after this incident, Colonel and Mrs.
Lyman passed the succeeding two years in Europe. That
roseate period was then brought to a sudden and tragic end
by a thunderbolt from a clear sky. At The Hague in the au-
tumn of 1873, his daughter and only child, then in her eleventh
}*ear, contracted a fever, and after a brief illness died. To
both Lyman and his wife the blow was crushing. For the
time being, the light had gone out from life.
Returning with Mrs. Lyman at once to America, Colonel
Lyman settled down at Brookline ; and with characteristic
courage, though with diminished interest, he returned to his
scientific pursuits. He had inherited from his father a sufficient
though not a large property beside the home estate at Brookline,
and neither he nor Mrs. Lyman cared for display or had extrav-
agant tastes. Both, however, were greatly attached to their
Brookline home and its surroundings ; and in their care and
development and his scientific pursuits Colonel Lyman sought
distraction. The sense of public spirit also now asserted itself,
and the two, he and his wife, united in giving to the Massa-
chusetts Infant Asylum, at Brookline, that first considerable
endowment (820,000) which proved for a much needed insti-
tution the beginning of a career of independent usefulness.
On the 14th of December following his return, Professor
Agassiz died ; and in the " Atlantic Monthly" for February,
1874, the pupil to whose whole life the naturalist had given
direction paid tribute to him.
During the next nine years Colonel Lyman remained at
home, at first slowly recovering from bereavement. Other
children, two sons, were afterwards born to him ; and with them
a new light dawned. He began also actively to interest him-
self in politics. This first evinced itself publicly in the Hayes-
Tilden presidential campaign of 1876 ; but in that somewhat
memorable election he did not apparently concern himself so
much over the presidential candidates as over the results of the
struggle carried on in the Middlesex congressional district,
adjoining that in which he lived. The notorious General
B. F. Butler, having two years before most unexpectedly
failed of an election in the Essex district, in which he had
a place of summer abode, now presented himself as a candi-
date for nomination in the Middlesex district, where he actu-
ally resided. After a spirited but futile contest in opposition
172 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
to him, he secured the nomination ; but the protestants refused
to accept the situation, and Judge E. R. Hoar was put in
nomination by them as an Independent candidate. Among
General Butler's admirers and ardent supporters none was
more prominent, and none so outspoken and emphatic, as
Wendell Phillips. General Butler was in fact conspicuous
among public men as almost the only recipient of compli-
mentary and approving utterances on the part of Mr. Phillips.
The latter now appeared on the Middlesex platforms as his
advocate, and, as matter of course, was in no way sparing
of the candidate of the Independents. This Judge Hoar did
not forget ; and, eight years later, repaid by a caustic and
well-remembered witticism. Whether a recollection of the
Garrison mob episode of six years before was excited in Theo-
dore Lyman's mind by the participation of his old adversary
in the contest going on in the neighboring bailiwick is not
known ; but suddenly he made his appearance on the platform
as a canvasser for Judge Hoar. His candidate unquestionably
embodied in great degree the political ideals of Theodore
Lyman ; but that his dislike and distrust of Butler dated back
to war times, and the memorable Petersburg campaign of 1861
was equally free from doubt. Then and there no love cer-
tainly was lost between the headquarters of the armies of the
Potomac and the James. So Colonel Lyman now came forth
from his Brookline retirement, and for the first time took
public part in a political canvass. Judge Hoar's candidacy
was merely a protest. That he had no chance of an election
himself, and but little of causing the defeat of Butler, was rec-
ognized from the outset ; and it excited no surprise when the
vote polled for him fell to less than 2,000 as compared with
over 12,000 cast for his opponent. Theodore Lyman naturally
was disappointed ; but, after his wont, he took the result good-
naturedly. His action had, however, brought him into notice
as a political possibility.
As the outcome of the canvass and subsequent disputed
election (Hayes-Tilden) of 1876, the angry issues arising out
of the Civil War were finally disposed of, and a new class of
questions gradually came to the front. Among these was a
reform of the civil service. Party ties also were relaxing ;
independence in politics was in vogue. Theodore Lyman
became more and more interested. He probably now had
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 173
in mind the idea of a possible congressional career. Why
not ? He was yet but a little over forty, he was wealthy, he
had achieved a reputation, he was not without ambition, he
was conscious of force, he craved activity. Though essen-
tially a social or clubable man, and in college days active,
always prominent, in the Pudding and the Porcellian, Lyman
for some reason never belonged to any of the established
Boston clubs. He had a prejudice against them. He seemed
to regard them as mere centres of idleness, dissipation and
gossip, sources of distractions from domestic life, — the rivals
of home. The president of the Harvard Alumni, of the Har-
vard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, of the famous
Boston Thursday Evening Club, he was long a member of
the yet more famous Saturday Club; and for over twenty
years he rarely, when at home, missed the monthly dinner
of a little association of officers of the great war, to the
hilarity and the reminiscences of which none contributed more
largely. So now his political activity took that direction ; he
became the founder of the Reform Club which, once known
by his name, still (1906) continues to have periodical dinners
whereat the issues of the day are warmly discussed, always
in a spirit of independence. The way for advancement now
opened ; and in 1882 the opportunity offered.
President Garfield, assassinated in July, 1881, was suc-
ceeded by Vice-President Arthur. Reconstruction had ceased
to be an issue ; specie payments had been resumed ; the cur-
rency question was thought to be settled, only to be revived
in the 16 to 1 silver delusion of ten years later ; and so
the minds of men turned to corruption in high places, the
civil service, and reform in general. Extensive changes in
party association were clearly impending ; a complete political
reconstruction was more than possible. It was largely through
mere habit that men continued to act each with his own party.
Under these circumstances, the mid-term election of 1882 was
not unnaturally one of surprises, a good deal mixed in charac-
ter. As its outcome General B. F. Butler, now the nominee
of the Democratic party, was elected Governor of Massachu-
setts ; and, though a Republican administration was in control
at Washington, an opposition Congress was chosen. The up-
rising was marked in Massachusetts otherwise than by the
election of Butler. In the Forty-Seventh Congress the State
174 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
had eleven members, of whom ten were chosen as Republi-
cans; in the Forty-Eighth Congress the House of Representa-
tives delegation was composed of four Opposition and seven
Republicans. Yet it was not a Democratic party victory.
The change had been effected by the Independent vote ; but
of the four districts carried by the opponents of the Adminis-
tration in Massachusetts the ninth only was represented by
one denominated as " Mugwump." Pat forward first by the
Independents, and then accepted by the Democrats, Lyman
received in this district 12,076 votes ; his Republican oppo-
nent received 9,703.
Purchasing a house in Washington, Colonel Lyman took up
his residence there in November, 1883. The next two were
years of novelty, and he unquestionably enjoyed them much.
His health, it is true, had already begun to fail, and in this
respect the outlook was ominous. The immediate present
was, however, full of interest and distraction ; he and Mrs.
Lyman took kindly to the new life, and socially made them-
selves most acceptable at the capital ; and in Washington
social aptitude, backed by the means for its exercise, counts for
a great deal. Theodore Lyman was also one of a class which
tells in Congress. An educated man with great abilities, a
striking and genial personality, a natural quickness of retort
and readiness in debate, he could not fail to make his presence
felt. It was felt, and recognized. But nowhere probably does
seniority and experience count for more than in the lower house
of Congress. No new member, no matter how gifted, can ac-
complish much; his first term is one of pure probation. Yet
Colonel Lyman in that first session distinctly made his mark,
laying the foundations of great possible future usefulness
if time only were given him. In particular he spoke with
authority on military matters, and he did it effectively, The
question of restoring his rank and so doing tardy justice to
General FitzJohn Porter then came up, and led to a spirited
debate. In this Lyman participated. He understood his sub-
ject, he had prepared himself carefully, and he portrayed
events so as to make them visible. His delivery was effective,
and his FitzJohn Porter speech was by common consent set
down as one of the best of the session. It established his
position as a debater.
Unfortunately, however, throughout there was a certain
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 175
hollowness in his position. He was an Independent, — a
" Mugwump " ! Behind him, in his district, there was no recog-
nized and solid party, no constituency to be counted on ; only
open opponents to be reckoned with, and half-hearted sup-
porters to be conciliated — if possible. The situation was un-
satisfactory, and he could not but have felt it to be so. He
had been elected on the issue of Civil Service reform ; but that
question had been disposed of and removed from politics,
and in disposing of it party lines had been effaced. The de-
sired measure passed by what approached nearly to common
consent ; and practically it was out of the way when, in early
December, 1883, Lyman took his seat. Eleven months later,
in November, 1884, he was defeated for a re-election. The
circumstances, too, were, from a public point of view, dis-
heartening, — they could not but leave a bitter taste in the
mouth. He had been an able and faithful representative ; in
every respect above reproach, he had reflected credit on his
State and his constituency. Party lines were not sharply
drawn. Lyman's natural associations were with the Republi-
cans, — the party which had carried the country through the
war. But the tariff also had come to the front ; and from
association he was not a free trader. On that issue he had
separated from the Opposition, offending the Democrats, who
had made of it a party question. Still the Republicans might
incline to one naturally of them. Unfortunately it was the
year of a presidential election. For an Independent all de-
pended on the nominations to be made. Finally, the Repub-
licans put forward James G. Blaine ; the Democrats, Grover
Cleveland. By the reform element of the Republican party, —
the element of which Colonel Lyman was distinctively repre-
sentative, — the selection of Mr. Blaine by the Republican
convention was held to evince a reckless disregard of good
political morals. It was at once repudiated. Thus cut off
from Republican support, Colonel Lyman found himself with
the Democrats, if not of them ; and the leaders of the Democ-
racy recalled his tariff vote. Nevertheless, the single chance
they had of carrying the Middlesex district was with him as
a nominee ; and on every issue now presented he was with
them. Then the narrow, the repulsive, side of political life
presented itself. Constituents of eminence, constituents of
education and professional standing, men who ought to have
176 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
known better and set a higher example, were not above tak-
ing a partisan stand. They wanted a Democrat put up, — a
reliable party man. So, when the ninth congressional district
Democratic Convention met, Colonel Lyman found himself
dropped. He had not in the first instance greatly cared to go
into Congress ; but, being there, he had found Washington
life enjoyable, and he had become interested in the game.
He felt he played it well. At any rate, he was not disposed
to desert that generous reform element in the district to which
he owed his former election and which now stood ready to
go down in defeat with him. So, put in nomination by the
Independents, he made a dignified and vigorous canvass,
though the conditions manifestly put success out of the ques-
tion. A presidential year, " the reform epidemic," as the
party leaders termed it, — the disturbing and incalculable
incident of off-years, — had run its course. So, when the
votes cast in the Ninth Massachusetts District were counted,
it was found that 4,260 had been cast for Theodore Lyman,
the sitting member, as compared with 12,285 for F. D. Ely,
his successful Republican competitor, and 6,301 for the nomi-
nee of the Democrats. On purely partisan grounds the
Democrats had thrown away all chance of securing the con-
trol of the district. Altogether, the experience was in many
respects illustrative of the vicissitudes and eccentricities
of American political life. But Theodore Lyman in 1884
merely met the fate of Richard H. Dana in the Essex district
in 1868, of E. Rockwood Hoar in the Middlesex district in
1882, and of Moorfield Storey in Lyman's own district in 1900.
In fact he did better at the polls than any one of these three.
His vote numbered 4,260; whereas that of Mr. Dana under
not dissimilar conditions was but 1,811, that of Judge Hoar,
1,955, and that of Mr. Storey, 2,858.
Again Colonel Lyman accepted his defeat with cheerful
dignity. Part of the game, it yet was hard. In any event he
could have served in Congress but one term more, for his in-
firmities were now perceptibly increasing upon him ; but that
term he would greatly have enjoyed. It would have been to
him as the Indian Summer of life. He was in his fifty-third
year only when the end of his activities came.
On Theodore Lyman's remaining time it is unnecessary to
dwell. At his retirement from Congress he had yet thirteen
1906.] MEMOIR OF THEODORE LYMAN. 177
years to live, — hopeless years of constantly increasing in-
firmity. Among his lifelong associates was Robert C. Win-
throp, Jr., a friend from college days, with whom at one
period he used to have much political discussion, the two
after 1861 in no way agreeing. Referring to this later period
and the painful and saddened declining years of his father's
life, Mr. Winthrop, in his Memoir of R. C. Winthrop, says, he
" was particularly pleased towards the last when one of the
most valued of his Brookline neighbors and a greater sufferer
than himself — our associate Theodore Lyman — sent him
from a sick-room the cheering message : ' You never neglect a
duty and you never forget a friend.' " Thus considerate of
others, himself surrounded by friends equally considerate,
Colonel Lyman passed the closing years at Brookline. Facing
the inevitable with a calm and unflinching courage, he, with-
out complaint, endured. A certain exaggeration of manner
and exuberance in speech, which had been characteristic of
him from his youth, by degrees disappeared, and was replaced by
a quiet, silent dignity almost stoical. The underlying sterling
qualities of the man shone forth ; but the cup was full. At
Nahant, on the afternoon of September 9, 1897, he was at last
mercifully released from what had long been a living entomb-
ment. 1 He had been married a few weeks less than forty-one
years ; a widow and two sons survived him. His name, inher-
ited from father and grandfather, was perpetuated in a fourth
generation.
1 See the obituary notice in Memoir of Henry Lee, by John T. Morse, Jr.,
Boston, 1905, pp. 410-412.
23
i
. ■ ■ ■
.. . ■ • '
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 179
Governor of the Commonwealth (1826-1832) and President
of this Society (1835-1841), lived at the west corner of Beacon
and Walnut Streets. There he died, not half a mile from the
spot where stood the house whence nine years less than two
centuries before his ancestor in the fifth generation had been
carried forth to his grave. The subject of this memoir, the
second Robert Charles Winthrop, was born almost between
the two sites, at No. 7 Tremont Place, immediately in rear of
the Boston Athenseum building; and he died, seventy-one
years later, at 10 Walnut Street, not a stone's throw from
where his grandfather had passed away sixty-four years pre-
viously. Coming into the world on the eastern slope of Beacon
Hill, on the Summer Street approach to Beacon Hill he passed
his boyhood, again on its eastern side his earlier manhood, and
on Beacon Hill he closed his life. Born Sunday, December 7,
1834, he died Monday, June 5, 1905.
At the time of the birth of the younger Robert C. Winthrop
— who always, even after the death of his father (1894), kept
the designation of " Jr." — the first Robert Charles was in his
twenty-sixth year, and about to enter upon that career of
public life which, so far as the tenure of office went, came to
an abrupt close in 1851. Until, therefore, the younger Robert
was a youth of seventeen, his father, to whom he was always
greatly attached, was immersed in politics ; and, a large por-
tion of the time, was absent in Washington. Those years,
with boys, are apt to be the impressionable period ; and in
young Robert's case the somewhat chequered experiences of
his father during that politically troubled time — the bitter
denunciation to which he was subjected and the personal
enmities thereby developed — were never forgotten. All
through life they materially influenced his son's views both of
men and events. As he wrote of himself later, by nature he
was a conservative, and somewhat of a reactionist ; and the
trend given to affairs between 1850 and 1860 was one with
which he never got to be in sympathy. So far as politics were
concerned, things with him went wrong early ; nor did they
ever afterwards right themselves.
Young Robert's school life was broken in upon at the begin-
ning ; for he was just six years old when his father first went
to Washington (December, 1840) as a member of Congress, and
among his earliest recollections was being taken by his father
180 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar,
to the White House and there seeing President Van Buren,
who, to amuse the boy sitting on his knee, showed him his
watch and seals. This must have been in the early months of
1841. In the summer of 1842 Mrs. Winthrop died ; and from
that time on, both young Robert's home life and education
were somewhat casual. At nine (1843) he was sent to a
boarding-school kept by Dr. J. A. Weiss in the Roxbury High-
lands, the only substitute there then was for the more elaborate
and far better equipped establishments which, in response to a
distinctly felt demand, began to come into existence a genera-
tion later ; and after that it was only during vacations and
intermittently that he came under his father's influence. His
mother (Eliza Cabot Blanchard) was a ward of her great-uncle
S. P. Gardner, and her relations with him were so close that
the boy was always in the habit of referring to his mother's
guardian as his " grandfather." One of young Robert's early
reminiscences, as he afterwards recorded, was of the quaint
Vassall house in Summer Street, occupied until her death,
in 1853, by " Old Lady Gardner," as she was called, " when
the picturesque mansion, with its gable end to the street, was
taken down. In its wide courtyard in front and large garden
[behind the stable] in the rear I used constantly to play as a
child. The out-of-door grapes and pears were famous, — a
veritable rus in urbe ! The great affection of my grandfather
for my mother, and his esteem for my father, led him to be
very kind to me, and I often sat with him in his study, almost
a separate building, adjoining the garden, when he showed me
many curious and interesting books or talked about early days
in Wenham and elsewhere." This old, colonial mansion, 1
with its wooden fence and gate-way, and ample courtyard,
still distinctly recalled by Bostonians of the early city period,
stood facing East on the South side of Summer Street, between
Washington and Chauncy Streets, on the present site of the
C. F. Hovey dry -goods store. The house then occupied by
the elder Robert C. Winthrop, after he left Tremont Place,
was above it, towards Washington Street.
The younger Robert C. Winthrop's life naturally divided
itself into two periods. During the earlier period his strong
desire was for European life and variety ; during the later
1 A picture of the Gardner house and yard can be found in J. J. Putnam's
Memoir of Dr. James Jackson (1905), p. 116.
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 181
his home, or Massachusetts, life was unbroken, and somewhat
tame. The dividing date was September 26, 1871, when he
landed in New York after an absence from America of two
years and a quarter. He did not again cross the Atlantic.
His first foreign experience was while yet at Dr. Weiss's
school, and in the companionship of his father. Leaving
Boston on the Cunard steamer u Hibernia," April 1, 1847, the
two got back to Boston September 19 following. Of that ex-
perience the elder Winthrop nearly half a century later pub-
lished a pleasant account in his little volume of "Reminiscences
of Foreign Travel" (1894). Mr. Winthrop and the boy then
covered a good deal of ground, visiting England, Scotland and
Ireland ; and, on the continent, France, Switzerland and the
Rhine region. Young Robert, at the time a little less than
fourteen, listened in the Houses of Parliament to Peel,
Brougham, Lyndhurst, Palmerston, Stanley and Lord John,
saw Wellington officiating at a state military review, and was
present at a rendering of " Elijah " led by Mendelssohn in per-
son ; while at the theatre, to which form of entertainment he
was both in youth and middle life much addicted, he heard
Grisi, Jenny Lind and Lablache sing, saw Fanny Ellsler and
Taglioni dance, and Rachel and Fanny Kemble act. Altogether
the early trip abroad made on him an abiding impression ; and,
not unnaturally, when he came home he felt no strong desire to
go back to Dr. Weiss's charge. So, after a short trial of the
Boston Latin School, young Robert drifted to the Andover
Phillips Academy, where he remained two years and a half,
fitting for Harvard. He entered college in 1850. His winter
vacations he had then been in the custom of passing in Wash-
ington ; the summers at Newport, or in the houses of his rela-
tives. For one constituted as he was such a mode of life was
most undesirable. At Andover, however, he did, for the first
and last time during his whole academic period, get and main-
tain a fair rank in his class. Quick enough at his studies he
would not, at school or in college, apply himself. He had also
at this time acquired, as he himself subsequently expressed
it, " a reputation in the family for wilfulness."
Entering college when he yet lacked four months of sixteen
years of age, his residence at Cambridge extended from 1850
to 1856. In his case it certainly was not a studious period.
" The contrast," as he afterwards wrote, " between the quiet
182 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
atmosphere of Andover and the temptations and comparative
independence of Cambridge, so near Boston, was very great.
The result was that I neglected my studies and developed a
habit of incessant theatre-going." But in his student life, how-
ever devoid it may have been of advance towards a good edu-
cational equipment, young Winthrop had much social success,
and in that way derived from it very considerable enjoyment.
In clubs and societies, other than literaiy, he was distinctly a
favorite. Always prominent, usually marshal or president, he
was not only " thought to excel as a presiding officer," but he
actually had a marked natural aptitude for that function,
" conducting initiations as well as more formal business in
an orderly and systematic manner." Finally, he later on re-
corded, " our class election [for the exercises immediately pre-
ceding Commencement] was held on Monday, March 13, 1854.
In those days the post of Orator was much the most important,
— not, as now [1902], that of Chief Marshal. Charles Russell
Lowell 1 was the most popular man in the class, and could
have been elected Orator by a practically unanimous vote, but
he declined to stand, as he was already First Scholar, which
he thought honor enough. Then ensued a contest ; but on the
fifth ballot I received a majority over all other candidates, and
was subsequently chosen by acclamation to be President of
the Class Supper. . . . The weather on Class Day (Friday,
June 23) was fine and everything went off well, my oration
seeming to please, tho' it would have been better had I put more
work in it." In point of fact everything on that occasion went
off with exceptional eclat, largely owing to Winthrop himself.
He was by nature adapted for functions of the sort ; for though,
as he very frankly admitted, not disposed to exert himself to
any undue extent in the drudgery of literary preparation, he
naturally had a vivacious and pointed delivery, easily got in
sympathy with an audience, and, as a host, was in his ele-
ment. In no other capacity did he appear so well, — quiet,
easy in bearing, gracious and sufficiently dignified, he put
every one at ease. His class-day prominence was, too, very
grateful to his father, to whom the son's collegiate course had
not in other respects been a source of unmixed gratification.
It had been the elder Winthrop's hope that young Robert
would acquire a taste for political life, following in his own
1 See Harvard Memorial Biographies, vol. i. pp. 296-327.
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 183
footsteps. The indication of certain popular qualities implied
in his selection as class-orator and the success of his oration as
respects delivery " led my father to think I might without diffi-
culty develop a knack at stump-speaking and that a political
career might gradually open itself to me. There was a good
deal in this suggestion, but it did not smile to me. I was not
what is generally known as a 'good American.' Our institu-
tions were too democratic for me. I wholly disbelieved in un-
restricted suffrage, preferring a conservative republic, with
long terms of office, and a suffrage based on property qualifi-
cations. The scramble for salaried posts on the part of blatant
demagogues, of which I had seen and heard so much at Wash-
ington and elsewhere, continually disgusted me, as often did
the machinery of caucuses and primary elections. I had some
idea I might one day gain distinction as a writer, but I made
up my mind never to be a politician.
" In my Memoir of my father I have described how my
grandfather was known at Harvard in 1778 as ; English Tom,'
and my father forty-six years later dubbed * English Win-
throp ' by some of his classmates, as a result of native reserve
and ceremonious manners. So I, when a Sophomore, was
taken to task in a friendly way by Professor Felton for affect-
ing a sort of ' English hauteur.' There was no affectation
about it. I was by nature reserved except with intimates,
combining a sort of youthful bashfulness with extreme short-
ness of vision, and my inability to recognize people at a little
distance often made me seem cold or indifferent.' ,
" English hauteur " was, however, not exactly the char-
acteristic for which, in Faculty circles at least, he was chiefly
noted. He has himself given an amusing account of an inter-
view he once had, in undergraduate years, with Dr. James
Walker, President of the University during the latter part of
Winthrop's collegiate course. He had been summoned to
receive what was known as a " Public Admonition " for im-
proper conduct during the delivery of a Dudleian lecture, the
improper conduct having in this case been " the consumption
and distribution of peanuts in the College Chapel " while the
lecture was being there delivered. " I could not in conscience
deny the charge ; and I was aware that any attempt to do so
would be futile, as I had not long before been credibly assured
that no less competent an authority than a well-known Pro*
184 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar-
fessor of Political Economy had personally identified a heap
of shells under my seat. I ventured, however, to insinuate
some slight palliation of the enormity of which I had been
guilty, by pointing out that no inconsiderable portion of that
Dudleian Lecture had been devoted to undermining certain
religious tenets which I had from childhood been taught to
reverence. Dr. Walker rejoined, in accents of unmistakable
severity, although, as it seemed to me, there played across his
expressive features the shadow — the momentary shadow- — of
a smile : ' Mr. Winthrop, your conduct in this, as in some
other matters, has been marked by an incorrigible want of
decorum.' "
Discontinuing his Cambridge residence in the summer of
1856, Winthrop entered the law office of our late associate
Leverett Saltonstall, whose marriage to a cousin of his had
led to an intimacy ; but his office attendance was, like his
attendance at Law School lectures, far from regular, and, as
he afterwards wrote, while " I read comparatively little I
acquired a general acquaintance with the usages of our local
courts and the ways of local practitioners which confirmed
in me a distaste for the profession which was perhaps unrea-
sonable. In September, 1857, I was, however, admitted a
member of the Suffolk bar on the strength of my three years'
studies ; but I have never practised."
Winthrop's own description of his next, and far more im-
portant, step in life is so characteristic, and, for those familiar
with both parties and the Boston social circle of that period
so suggestive, that it cannot be omitted : " In the Autumn
[October 15, 1857] I was married to Frances Pickering Adams,
generally known as ' Fanny Adams,' youngest daughter of
Mr. Benjamin Adams, a near neighbor of ours in Pemberton
Square. I was then a little less than twenty-three years old,
she a year younger, though looking about seventeen. My
father thought me rather young to marry, and her parents
would very naturally have preferred a son-in-law with larger
means. Our joint income was a small one, and in looking
back upon the undertaking it certainly seems to have been
rash, but we were very happy and managed to keep out of
debt. To many persons besides myself she was one of the
most — if not the most — attractive girls in Boston, small,
graceful, with a bewitching expression and golden hair, an
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 185
exceptionally good dancer, with a soprano voice, much love
of music, a sunny disposition and a lively sense of humor.
She came of a long-lived family and had enjoyed excellent
health up to the spring of 1856, when she took cold while sus-
taining the principal part in some private theatricals managed
by Arthur Dexter (H. U. 1851) and given by Mrs. Samuel
Hooper at 56 Beacon Street. This cold left her with a cough
which, though slight and intermittent, sometimes occasioned
anxiety, and obliged her to nearly give up her singing. It
was the opinion of Dr. Jacob Bigelow that a few winters in
the South of Europe were very desirable for her, and his
advice accorded with my inclinations."
Sailing for Europe a week after his wedding (October 21,
1857), Robert Winthrop returned to Boston, a widower, thirty-
two months later, in June, 1860. His young wife had
died of tubercular consumption at Rome the previous April,
almost exactly two years and a half after their marriage.
During that time Mrs. Winthrop had, however, as a rule,
though not strong, been fairly well, and both of them seem to
have enjoyed Europe greatly. Travelling much, usually by
carriage, they made repeated visits to England, France and
Italy, crossing the Alps, passing much time at Paris, at Pau
and on the Riviera, visiting Malta, spending a winter in Rome,
and part of a summer on the Rhine. More than forty years
afterwards, referring to the close of this first marriage, Mr.
Winthrop said of his wife that, though never free from
anxiety on her account, " until the last few hours she was
mercifully spared from suffering, was fully conscious to the
end, retaining throughout her illness her cheerful, sunny dis-
position." Preparing to return at once to America by steamer
from Liverpool, he personally arranged at Marseilles for the
transportation of the embalmed remains of Mrs. Winthrop by
a sailing vessel to New York, " the master undertaking to
reserve his cabin on deck exclusively for the body." May 28
" she was laid to rest in the Benjamin Adams tomb at Mt. Au-
burn, 189 Woodbine Path, a beautiful situation. That morn-
ing a funeral service, attended only by relations and intimate
friends, took place at Pemberton Square, Rev. S. K. Lothrop,
D.D. (who had married us), officiating. At both these ser-
vices, the one in Rome and the one in Boston, I took immense
pains with the flowers, and think they would have pleased her."
24
186 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
When this brief episode of his early manhood thus closed,
Mr. Winthrop was only in his twenty-sixth year. His second
marriage took place just nine years later (June 1, 1869), and
the intervening period was passed at Boston when at home,
but chiefly in European travel, for which he at this time had
a strongly developed taste. In America his journeys never
extended beyond Saratoga and the eastern seaboard cities ;
though once, in 1857, he went to Charleston and Savannah,
" going by sea from New York and receiving many attentions
from southern relatives." It was, however, during the winter
following his return that he began to interest himself in those
family manuscripts to the arrangement and publication of
which he later devoted much time and no inconsiderable
amount of money. Getting " homesick for Europe," he passed
nine months of the next year (1862) abroad, visiting England,
France and Italy, travelling with his college and life-long
friends, Charles Thorndike and Theodore Chase, and meeting,
among others, Count Bismarck, then representing the King of
Prussia at the Court of the Emperor Napoleon, ex-Chancellor
Brougham, at that time a very old man, and Earl Grey. Still
hungering for Europe, in 1863 he was abroad twice, passing
his time chiefly at Paris, a little in London and Pau. In 1864,
June to August, " followed another short but very pleasant
European trip " ; not so much in Paris as before. " I was
the better part of a month in England and Scotland — Tun-
bridge Wells, St. Leonards, Edinburgh, the Trossachs. I had
tired of Boston society and went out little in the winter of
1864-65, busying mj^self in work on the Winthrop papers."
And then again, "three months in Europe." The fact was
Europe afforded him variety; he there found interest, excite-
ment, even occupation in a way. But Boston was monotonous
and dull ; the streets were not gay, the theatres were indiffer-
ent; he met continually the same people; he was, in a word,
ennuye, — bored.
Europe, it must also be remembered, was to an American,
especially to an American of the Robert Winthrop type, a
far more fascinating place before the revolutionizing Franco-
German war than it now is. Mr. F. E. Parker, formerly a
member of the Society noted for his keen observation and in-
cisive speech, is said to have been in the custom of asserting
that it was the mission of America to vulgarize Europe ; and
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 187
our associate, Professor Norton, I remember, once declared
in discussion before this Society that, allowing this to be more
or less true, and that it was indeed the mission of America to
vulgarize Europe, it was no less certainly the mission of Ger-
many to brutalize it. Assuming a degree of truth in both
propositions, it will not be denied it is since 1870 that both
Germany and America have in their respective missions put in
the most telling work. Prior to 1870 there was to cultivated
Americans a certain atmosphere of remoteness about Europe,
both in time and space, much less perceptible now. London
was }'et to a degree old-time ; Paris was imperial ; Rome was
mediaeval. The Papacy was a secular as well as a spiritual
power, and an American in the Eternal City seemed to go back
at once three centuries of time, as well as to be obviously
several thousand miles from Boston. The Piazza di Spagna of
1860 was distinctively Roman; the Quirinal of 1906 is unmis-
takably suggestive of Chicago. But perhaps the change is
most perceptible in Paris.
Three centuries before, Montaigne had described himself as
always " perfectly friends with Paris," and declared that " the
more beautiful cities I have seen since, the more the beauty
of this still wins upon my affection. I love her tenderly even
to her warts and blemishes . . . this great city, great in people,
great in the felicity of her situation ; but, above all, great and
incomparable in variety and diversity of commodities : the
glory of France, and one of the most noble ornaments of the
world." In common with many Americans, Robert Winthrop
felt towards the French capital of the middle of the nineteenth
century much as the old Provencal did towards that of the
middle of the sixteenth. In Paris he felt most at home. It
was the period of the Second Empire ; and, between 1857 and
1870, the years when Mr. Winthrop loved best to be there,
Paris was gay, brilliant, exciting. The city was in process of
transformation, but quaint bits of the old town were yet to be
found. The Palais Royal was in its glory ; it was the day of*
Ve7our and the Trois-Freres. The Zouave, springy in step and
picturesquely garbed, was so much in evidence that the morn-
ing air seemed to ring with his bugles ; while the Turco, with
his white burnous and glittering arms, contributed an oriental
touch to the scene. The marshals were resplendent; the very
gendarmes were in striking contrast to the London or New
188 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
York police. The city by the Seine was strange, picturesque,
resonant. It may all have been scenic ; it certainly was not
republican ; and the event showed that, as components, paste-
board, tinsel and sham entered into it largely : but to an
American, especially to an American who, like Robert Win-
throp, made no pretence of being a "good American," there
was about it an undeniable fascination. Boston suffered by
the contrast : — Beacon Hill might be all very well, but it was
not the Rue de Rivoli ; Washington Street had little in com-
mon with the Boulevard ; and as to the Champs Elysees, it
was then "Tom" Appleton announced the new dispensation
that when good Bostonians died they went to Paris.
Such to an American was Europe anterior to the Franco-
German war, — the Europe, and more especially the Paris, for
which Robert Winthrop grew "homesick" when passing the
winters in Boston between his thirtieth and fortieth years.
Of this period and his plans and aspirations he long afterwards
wrote: — •" During the nearly three years which elapsed be-
tween my return home towards the close of 1862 and my
now [1866] going away, I had tried hard at intervals to
secure some permanent occupation. Practice of the law had
as little attraction for me as ever, — politics even less, owing
to the shameful attacks upon my father, for some account of
which see my Memoir of him. Military service in the Civil
War was out of the question owing to my liability to water on
the knee, — and even had this been otherwise, such service
would have been distasteful to me, as I had friends and rela-
tives at the South and believed the Republican party to be
largely responsible for the conflict. For literary work I was
better suited, and I occasionally availed myself of opportunities
for writing newspaper articles. At one time I thought seri-
ously of going to San Francisco on such an errand, but was
rather discouraged by my father's old friend, Hon. Edward
Stanley, who represented the tone of society there as coarse
and convivial, and thought that a reserved, fastidious man
like myself, who hated being asked to ' drink,' would be
handicapped at the outset. I have no doubt he was right.
I was always more of a dreamer than a worker, capable of
much energy by fits and starts, alternating with periods of
more or less indulgence and indolence. I wrote verses and
short stories which failed to satisfy me, — a novel which I
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 189
burned when half finished, it fell so short of my ideal, — but
it was a pleasure to me to assist my father in his various
historical and commemorative undertakings."
During the summer of 1866 Mr. Winthrop, weary of Amer-
ica — again " homesick " for Europe — made preparations for
a long absence, and in October sailed for Liverpool. The
following winter was passed in Paris " doing a prodigious
amount of theatre-going and being much in society, chiefly
American, though occasionally foreign"; and the following
March he started with his friend, William E. Howe, of Boston,
" on what proved a very delightful trip to Spain and Portu-
gal." Winthrop's account of his experiences during this trip
is truly vivid ; and, though the travelling was rough, he
evidently enjoyed it greatly.
" After a brief visit to Bayonne and Biarritz, and longer ones to
Burgos and Valladolid, we passed nearly a fortnight in Madrid, pro-
foundly impresed by the art-collections and by a trip to the Escorial.
Our Minister, John P. Hale, took me to an evening reception at the
house of the Countess Montijo, mother of the Empress Eugenie, where
I made the acquaintance of divers Spanish grandees, male and female,
and found them unaffected and pleasant. The Duke of Berwick and
Alva (to whom we brought a letter) took us in person all over his
most luxurious and interesting palace. In Madrid, too, I had my
first experience of bull-fighting. On leaving there we went .first to
Toledo, and then, via Aranjuez and Ciudad Real and Badajoz, by rail
to Lisbon, which we reached April 1st, finding it a really beautiful city,
but the people much less well-mannered than the Spanish. Harvey,
our Minister, and Banuelos, 1 the Spanish Minister, who had married
Mary Adeline Thorndike, were full of attention, and I was at the
house of Koadriaffsky, the Russian Minister, of Sir Augustus Paget,
the British Minister, whose wife (born Countess Hohenthal) was very
pleasant, besides seeing something of two leaders of Lisbon society, the
old Marchioness of Viana and the Countess of Penafiel. At a large
evening reception, at the house of the Deputy Vasconcellos, I was
much struck by the fact that nearly all the men stayed in one room
smoking or playing cards, leaving the ladies to themselves. At one
time Banuelos and I were the only males in the biggest drawing-room,
1 During the week in which this Memoir was submitted to the Society the
following item appeared in the death announcements of the " Boston Transcript"
(March 5, 1906): —
" BANUELOS — At Biarritz, France, March 3, Count de Banuelos, senator,
former under secretary of state, minister to Portugal and ambassador to Berlin.
New York and Washington papers please copy."
190 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
which was full of women. . . . Portuguese bull-fights are supposed to
be less dangerous than Spanish ones owing to the tipping of the horns,
but in Lisbon I saw a man killed by falling on his head after being
tossed. April 8, 1867, we went by rail from Lisbon to Carregado,
where we were met by an ancient chariot and pair, driving thence by
Cereal to Caldas da Rainha, where we passed the night. Next day
we drove to the famous Abbey of Alcobaca, of which Beckford gives
so interesting a description before its devastation ; then by Aljubarrota
to the still more famous Church and Monastery of Batalha, an archi-
tectural creation of marvellous beauty. April 10, we drove from Leiria
to Pombal, taking thence a train to Oporto, where we stayed two days
and with which we were greatly pleased. Our intention had been to
go on to Braga and the Minho country, but in order to reach Seville
for Holy Week we had to give this up. We found time, however, for
half a day at the quaint old city of Coimbra, where we were treated
with great courtesy at the University aud elsewhere. Leaving there
in the evening of April 13, we travelled by rail via Badajoz to Merida,
which we reached at six the next morning and there took the dili-
gence across country to Seville. This was a very unusual route for
foreigners to take, and as it was Palm Sunday, with villages en fete,
we saw a great deal of local coloring. The road was very rough, our
horses numbering from nine to twelve. After passing Almendralejo,
not a bad-looking town, we entered upon the dirty, interminable
plains of Estremadura, but by sundown were out into the defiles of
the Sierra Morena. Our supper towards midnight in a vaulted kitchen,
jammed with muleteers and peasants, with huge logs blazing in a
mediaeval fireplace was indescribably weird. Everybody was polite,
but we excited great curiosity. AVe reached Seville on the morning
of April 15 and stayed there nine days, enjoying every moment. . . .
April 27, we took a small steamer to Gibraltar, where the Governor
Gen. Sir Richard Airey, an old friend of my father, was very civil,
and at dinner at his residence, ' The Convent,' we met a number of
officers. April 30, we went over to Morocco in the steamer Hercules,
passing a day and night in Tangier, — that apotheosis of picturesque
filth, — scouring its environs on horseback with a guide named Mo-
hammed Ben Jackjemed, besides being presented to the Moorish
Governor and smoking a little 'opium. In the afternoon of May 1st
we returned to Gibraltar, starting for Andalusia the next morning with
a guide and three horses, the one which fell to my lot being an English
hunter, — the whole trip having been planned by Sprague, the U. S.
Consul, a very gentlemanly and obliging person. The road was a mere
mule-path, but the scenery glorious, and after ten hours in the saddle,
— lunching on an islet in the Guadiaro River, — we reached Gaucin,
where we had an excellent dinner in a vaulted kitchen, the landlord's
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 191
daughter decking the table with wild flowers. The next morning
(May 3) we were in the saddle at 6.45 and reached Ronda at 2.30
p.m. without drawing rein, — a neat, pretty town, looking in the
distance like a castle in a fairy tale. Wonderful bridge over the
Tajo, the chasm being 300 feet deep, and perhaps as wonderful
Ronda oranges which do not bear transportation. The English papers
of this period represented this part of Spain as infested by brigands,
but we met none but polite peasantry, and the ' Guardias Civiles '
seemed to spring out of the ground by magic. Throughout this trip
I was greatly struck by the excellence of the Spanish police. . . .
Saturday, May 4, we were in the saddle soon after 5 a.m. The mule
path grew worse and the scenery grander and grander, as we crossed
two high mountains of the Serrania chain. Passing the town and
castle of El Burgo, we rested for a while at Casarabonela, and at
sunset reached Pizarra, a pretty little place embosomed in orange and
lemon trees, rhododendrons and pomegranates. Here we passed the
night, faring comfortably in a roadside tavern frequented by muleteers,
— capital ham and eggs, clean beds, but no wash-stand. Here also
we parted with our guide, who with true Castilian dignity swept the
money into his sash uncounted. Sunday, May 5, we went by rail
to Malaga and the following afternoon by Bobadilla to Antequera,
where the rail ceased and we had an uncomfortable night journey in
a diligence, via Archidona and Loja, to Granada, which we reached
at 8 a.m., May 7, 1867. Here we stayed three delightful days, en-
chanted with the Alhambra, more than enchanted with the general life.
Altogether we enjoyed Granada more than anything else in Spain."
Crossing the frontier May 28, Mr. Howe at Bayonne parted
from Mr. Winthrop, and went to Aix les Bains, while Winthrop
went on to Paris. He was there forced to succumb to an attack
of his " old enemy," water on the knee, the result of over
exertion in Spain. After a summer passed largely as a cripple,
" dragged about the Great Exposition in bath-chair," on the
1st of August Mr. Winthrop set out on a trip to Russia, in
company with his step-brother, George Welles, recently (1866)
graduated from Harvard. Going by way of Rheims and Nancy
to Munich, at Salzburg they joined for a time the elder Win-
throp and his family, who had gone abroad in June, and with
them went to Linz. Steaming down the Danube to Vienna,
they passed on to Pesth and Cracow, which the tourists thought
" a nice old place, with too many Jews." Thence they went
to Warsaw ; but, rumors of cholera cutting short their stay,
they hurried on to St. Petersburg, getting there Septera-
192 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
ber 1, and finding it quite cold. September 9, they reached
Moscow —
"after another long journey; and liked it much better than St.
Petersburg on the whole. Besides the sights in the city and its neigh-
borhood, we travelled two and a half hours by rail to the famous mon-
astery of Troitsa, where we saw, among other things, the venerable
Philarete, Patriarch of Moscow, then aged 90 and very feeble. The
weather was so cold we abandoned our proposed trip to the great Fair of
Nijui Novgorod, and, September 14, 1867, returned to St. Petersburg,
where we stayed four and a half more days, and after a long journey,
via Wilna and Konigsberg, reached Danzig in the evening of September
19th. The most distinct impression three weeks in Russian dominions
made upon me was the rapacity of the natives, the excellence of the
ballets, and the magnificent mode of life of the Imperial family. Dan-
zig we found a quaint and attractive place, the Nuremberg of the North.
September 21, we reached Berlin, where our Minister, Mr. Bancroft,
was very civil. Three days later on leaving the Royal Palace I un-
accountably slipped on an iron staircase and in falling broke one of the
bones of my right arm just above the wrist, the setting being very pain-
ful. This disarranged all our plans. There was nothing to be done
but to return to Paris as soon as I was able to travel, which was not
until the evening of September 30, with my arm in a plaster cast. . . .
On the 23d of October the plaster was taken off my arm and I resumed
my ordinary Parisian life, besides occasionally attending debates in
the French Chambers, listening to Thiers and Rouher among other
speakers."
The following is from Mr. Winthrop's " Scribbling-diary,"
as he termed the somewhat characteristic notes relating among
other matters to the debates to which he listened at the period
referred to : —
"Dec. 4, 1867. Jules Favre's speech a violent denunciation of a
state of things for which he suggests no remedy.
" Dec. 9th. At the Corps Legislatif with my father from 1 to 6.30.
Dull speech of nearly two hours from Garnier-Pages, then an eloquent,
bitter one from Emile Ollivier, whom Thiers interrupted, and then
replied to in the most excited manner amid much cheering. Alto-
gether an interesting and animated debate on the Foreign policy of the
Government. Schneider, an estimable man, but a poor presiding officer.
Thiers reminded me of Mr. Savage in manner. Rouher is somewhat
Websterian with fine flashes and retorts. Garnier-Pages a trifle Cal-
hounish ; while Ollivier has a fine voice, but looks like a little
Jew."
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 193
Returning to America after an absence of over two years,
Mr. Winthrop reached New York early in December, 1868,
and passed the rest of the winter in Boston, busy disman-
tling the dwelling-house at No. 1 Pemberton Square, in which
his father had made his home for twenty years. On the 1st of
the following June Mr. Winthrop married Elizabeth, oldest
daughter of Robert M. Mason, of Boston. Ten years his
junior, he had made Miss Mason's acquaintance at Pau in
1862. Of the second Mrs. Winthrop he long afterwards
wrote, — "We have now [1902] been married nearly a third
of a century, and I can truly say I have never known a woman
who possessed for me so irresistible a charm."
Like himself, Mrs. Winthrop preferred Europe to America ;
so a month after their marriage they sailed from New York
(June 30, 1869). Passing the winter in Italy, where he under-
went severe illness, causing some temporary anxiety, Mr.
Winthrop and his wife the next May returned to Paris, and
the summer found them in Switzerland, reaching Berlin by
way of Vienna. It was the year of the Franco-German war
and the downfall of the Second Empire : —
" September 19 found us at the Hotel du Nord at Berlin, where we
stayed eight days, with excursions to Potsdam, etc. Little sign of war
save contribution-boxes for the wounded, and rows of captured cannon
and mitrailleuses in the Palace-Court. Amazing caricatures of Napo-
leon III. in shop windows, with some indecent ones of the Empress
Eugenie. At dinner at our Minister's [Mr. Bancroft] I sat next to
Brandt, Queen Augusta's private secretary, who said the King had
testified to the personal courage displayed by Napoleon III. at Sedan,
to his moral courage in surrendering to avoid useless slaughter, and to
the dignity with which he bore himself after the surrender. He further
stated that Moltke's plans for this campaign were drawn four years ago,
that the latter's secret agents had satisfied him of the French inferiority
of numbers and the insufficient armament of their fortresses, that the
Chassepot was really a better weapon than the needle-gun, but that
the French fired hurriedly and too high.
"Sept. 27, 1870. We went from Berlin to Cassel, where we were
delighted with the Gallery, which I had never seen, and with Wilhelms-
hohe, the German Versailles, where Napoleon III. was in luxurious
captivity. He had gone out on horseback, but we saw several of his
suite, including Edgar Ney and Achille Murat, smoking and reading
newspapers on the terrace. From Cassel we had intended going to
Detmold, but finding the railway service disorganized by the war we
25
194 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
beaded for Holland, passing a night each at Soest and Salzbergen,
reaching Amsterdam October 2d, 1870."
Passing the following winter in England, but going again to
Italy in April, Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop crossed the Simplon by
carriage and four, lunched (May 23) on the summit and slept
at Brieg, going thence to Vevey, getting back to Paris " at
last," the middle of June, "after a year's absence, finding the
luggage we left at the Orient in good condition. We were
among the earliest of the foreign colony to re-enter Paris, find-
ing in every direction interesting traces of the Prussian siege
and the brutal devastation of the Commune." This, Mr.
Winthrop's last visit to Paris was of five weeks' duration.
Leaving for England, July 20, he and Mrs. Winthrop passed
the summer there, and in Wales.
"Sept. 16, 1871, we sailed from Liverpool in the Cunard steamer
' Russia,' landing in New York on the morning of the 26th, after
an absence from America of two years and a quarter. At that time
we fully expected to return to Europe in the course of a year or two,
but a variety of causes led us to postpone it, — the birth of chil-
dren, my father's dependence upon me, my father-in-law's indisposition
to part with his daughter, etc. It was not until the spring of 1895 that
my wife went abroad on an absence of a year and a half, and tho ?
my three children have been repeatedly in Europe, I have never set
foot there since 1871, my health since my father's death, in 1894, hav-
ing been very uncertain, indisposing me for distant journeys."
At the time of his return to America in 1871, Mr. Winthrop
was not yet thirty-seven. He and his wife thereafter lived in
Boston, for twenty years passing their summers at various
places in houses hired for the season, — at Lenox, at Lincoln,
at Medford and at Beverly. In 1894, however, they bought,
at Manchester-by-the-Sea, an unfinished house, begun on a
large scale by C. A. Prince, on a place comprising, with land
bought from others, some forty acres. The completion of the
house, the building of the outhouses and stables and laying-
out the adjoining grounds, afforded Mr. Winthrop occupation
and interest for several of the closing years of his life. His
summing up was, however, characteristic.
" The disadvantages of a New England country-place are the great
liability to occasional drought, the mosquitoes which in some seasons
are very trying, the great difficulty in finding a trustworthy and capa-
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 195
ble head-gardener, and the still greater difficulty in finding suitable
hands to work under him. With all these drawbacks it is well worth
doing if one can afford it, and the advantage of receiving from it in the
winter months flowers, milk, cream and eggs, is very great. Really
fresh eggs are the one thing money will not buy.
" We named this summer residence ' Lanthorne Hill ' after the estate
in Connecticut which formed part of the possessions of Gov. John Win-
throp, Jr., descending thro' five generations of his descendants and so
often referred to in our family papers. It was never inhabited by them,
however, and when found to be of little value for mining purposes con-
tinued a wild, ragged hill of great extent overlooking the Sound near
what is now Stonington. Land has of late so much increased in value
in the neighborhood of West Manchester that I foresee that when my
wife and I are gone the modern Lanthorne Hill will be cut, up into
building lots.
"Since my final return from Europe towards the close of 1871,1
have led for the most part a quiet domestic life, the one best suited to
my mature tastes, but a great contrast to my early ones. My wife
cared little for general society, and I gradually withdrew more and
more from the gay world, besides losing my interest in popular amuse-
ments. Still less did I fancy opportunities which sometimes opened for
acquiring a certain notoriety as a speaker at public dinners, a lecturer
on historical subjects, a reviewer of books or periodicals, or in serving
on committees of one sort or another. My father would have had me
more ambitious, but I am satisfied that my preference for the back-
ground accorded best with my contentment and my health. I have felt
flattered to find it sometimes said ' he might have been distinguished
had he chosen to exert himself,' but I should have been stung by any
insinuation that I had tried to make a figure in the world and failed.
" My time, however, has by no means wholly been devoted to domes-
tic pursuits. Aside from the assistance I constantly rendered my father
in his numerous undertakings, I was for twenty years an active member
of the Massachusetts Historical Society of which both my father and
grandfather had been Presidents, but in which I preferred to hold no
office. During this period three of its volumes of Collections were in
great measure prepared and edited by me, while its volumes of Pro-
ceedings contain more than 100 communications of mine on different
subjects ; some short, others of considerable length, others privately
reprinted in pamphlet form. They do not, however, contain a squib 1
of mine in 1885, entitled 'A Few Words in Defence of an Elderly
Lady,' being a reply to Dr. G. E. Ellis, who in an address on Chief
Justice Sewali had gone out of his way to attack the widow of Wait
1 A Difference of Opinion concerning the Reasons why Katherine Winthrop
refused to marry Chief Justice Sewali. Boston. Privately Printed, 1885.
196 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Winthrop, whom Sewall had vainly endeavored to marry. This pro-
duction, on being read to the Society, met with such success that I
printed it for private distribution, resisting repeated offers from pub-
lishers. My memoir of my father, 1 tho' nominally prepared for the
Historical Society, was separately printed in a volume of 360 pages, and
two editions of it were widely circulated by me in public libraries
throughout this country and abroad.
" Genealogical pursuits have also occupied me more or less, chiefly
in relation to my own family or those immediately connected with it.
For instance, the first volume of J. J. Muskett's ' Suffolk Manorial
Families ' was printed chiefly at my expense, and fifty copies of the
first four parts of it were caused to be bound and distributed by me with
the title ' Winthrop of Groton and Allied Families.'
" Besides the above-mentioned Memoir of my father a shorter one of
my father-in-law, Robert M. Mason, and one of my father's cousin,
Hon. David Sears, — all separately printed as well as included in the
Society's Proceedings, — I wrote for the Ipswich Historical Society all
but the local part of a ' Sketch of John Winthrop the Younger,' print-
ing it at my own expense with frontispiece and facsimiles.
"The re-arrangement of the large collection of Colonial MSS.
conventionally known as the Winthrop Papers 2 has occupied much of
my time at different periods. A large number of these MSS. have
been deciphered and copied by me, while valuable selections from
them have been given by me to the State Library of Connecticut,
Yale University Library, the Pilgrim Society, Long Island Historical
Society, et al.
" For many years I was one of the Trustees of the Boston Athe-
nasum, serving on its Library Committee, but I preferred to retire on
account of dissatisfaction with the management of that institution and
a wish to avoid controversy with colleagues who were my personal
friends. For many years also I was a member of the locally famous
' Wednesday Evening Club of 1777,' until an increasing deafness, com-
bined with less and less inclination to go out of an evening, decided me
to retire.
" Without ever having been an especially robust man I enjoyed
average health until my sixty-third year. . . .
" The death of my father in 1894, in his 86th year, was a merciful
release from protracted suffering, but the death of my brother John, in
1 A Memoir of Robe.rt C. Winthrop. Prepared for the Massachusetts His-
torical Society by Robert C. Winthrop, Jr. Boston, 1897.
2 This exceptionally valuable collection of papers, bequeathed by Mr. Win-
throp to his wife, with a suggestion that from her they should pass ultimately
into the control of the Massachusetts Historical Society, were, shortly after Mr.
Winthrop's death, given by Mrs. Winthrop to the Society. See Proceedings,
2d ser., vol. xix. p. 307. '
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 197
the following year, at the age of only fifty-four, was a great grief to
me, for tho' we had few tastes in common we were very fond of one
another and every one was fond of him. . . . The successive deaths of
so many intimate friends of my early life, of both sexes, has contributed
to render my life, in recent years, more and more that of a recluse, and
I pass it mostly with books and manuscripts. My political opinions
can substantially be gleaned from my Life of my father, but I am not
as good an American as he was, nor am I fully certain that I should
not have had Loyalist sympathies at the outbreak of the Revolution."
The passage here referred to in the Memoir of the elder
Robert C. Winthrop is both in thought and expression so
characteristic of the writer that no sketch of his life would be
complete without it. Moreover it was evidently written as a
species of declaration of political faith, — a parting protest
against tendencies as the younger Robert C. had observed
them : —
" He held many old-fashioned views upon a variety of subjects, some
of which were of a character to excite disgust or derision in the breast
of any self-respecting ' advanced-thinker.' For instance, he believed
that the best way to check crime lies in the prompt and effective pun-
ishment of a convicted criminal, and, though a tender-hearted man, he
not merely approved the death-penalty, but considered flogging an
admirable corrective to certain classes of offences. He was a total
disbeliever in unrestricted suffrage, preferring, with his friend Francis
Lieber, an extensive suffrage, based upon property and education,
within the gradual reach of all who chose strenuously to apply them-
selves. He realized, however, that in such a matter there can be no
step backward, and that one might as well try to lessen the number of
flatulent demagogues in our legislative bodies, or of sensational writers
in the press, or of notoriety-seeking preachers in the pulpit. He
believed not only in a well-organized militia, but in a standing army
large enough to secure the vigorous enforcement of the laws. In the
abstract, he preferred the Republican form of government to any other,
but the toppling over of a monarchy did not necessarily inspire him
with unmixed exhilaration ; he sometimes doubted whether anything
would be gained by the exchange. To him the name mattered little,
the essentials being, in his judgment, an honest and efficient municipal
system affording clean streets, good roads, and adequate protection to
life and property; a trained civil, diplomatic, and consular service, safe
from the ravening greed of party-hacks and office-seekers ; an intelli-
gent and systematic effort to ameliorate the condition of the poorer
classes ; and a degree of personal liberty not allowed to degenerate
198 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
in'o license. He was not sanguine enough to expect all this anywhere
in absolute perfection, but to try to approximate it in different parts
of the world seemed to him wiser and more practical than to thrill with
what is vaguely termed ' the enthusiasm of humanity/ or to ' prate,' as
John Quincy Adams called it, ' about the Rights of Man.' Next to an
exalted opinion of himself, the most sustaining reflection to many a
man is the firm belief which often accompanies it, not only that every-
thing is going on for the best in the best of all possible worlds, but
that his own country is by all odds the most favored spot in the uni-
verse and that its institutions should be unreservedly envied and imi-
tated by other nations. If patriotism is to be gauged by any such
spread-eagle standard, no amount of special pleading could disguise that
Mr. Winthrop's was below par. Ardently as he loved his country, he
was far from considering it faultless. Preferring it to any other, he
thought it not improbable that if he had been born and bred in some
other, he might have liked it equally well. He had a very high opin-
ion of the average ability of American public men of all parties, and a
still higher opinion of the capacity and ingenuity of that composite
race, the American people ; but he sometimes wished they would not
be so boastful, so credulous, so sensitive to the slightest foreign criti-
cism, and so absorbingly agog about the doings — or alleged misdoings
— of persons of title on the other side of the Atlantic."
Mr. Winthrop was elected a member of the Massachusetts
Historical Society in May, 1879 ; and it is speaking within
bounds to say that to no person in its history has an election
into our Society meant so much. He needed an impetus to
exertion — an incitement and an interest. All these the
Society furnished him. A man of distinct ability, with very
considerable powers of application of a peculiar and uncertain
character, with a striking vivacity of speech and expression,
his sense of family pride was as pronounced as was his ten-
dency to the indulgence of an inclination to ease ; but in our
Society he felt a species of hereditary pride and, for it, even a
sort of responsibility. Even this, however, lost its hold ; and,
as time went on, he more and more inclined to seclusion.
As he grew older, it was curious to observe him in his familiar
haunts. Becoming a member of the Somerset Club immedi-
ately after graduation, while he was yet in middle life he was
there looked upon by the younger members as of an earlier
generation. He seemed apart. Always easy and courteous,
— possessing in a marked degree the Winthrop manner, — as
his old friends one by one died off, their places, for him,
1906.] MEMOIR OF ROBERT C. WINTHROP, JR. 199
remained unfilled. Always temperate, as he ate at his soli-
tary table he would habitually have before him a magazine or
newspaper; but if a friend of his youth chanced to come in,
and, dropping into the chair opposite, address him before the
awestruck juniors by the familiar abbreviation of name, his
face would at once light up as the old geniality returned. As
a rule, however, the younger generation and its prattle did not
interest him ; and even the theatre, or at any rate the Ameri-
can theatre in its Boston stage of development, had ceased to
amuse. Yet his letters were sprightly and pleasant to the
end ; caustic and full of observation. He seemed also to take
pleasure in writing them.
A constant reader, he never lost his appreciation of liveli-
ness and humor in literature : but the passing away of his
early intimates affected him deeply. At last, of those men-
tioned in his notes of travel, and whose photographs hung on
the walls of that room in the Walnut St. house which was
the favorite retreat of his later years, one only survived, —
Charles Thorndike, his classmate and lifelong friend. Mr.
Winthrop's existence thus became more and more solitary and
self-centred. He yielded to the inclination. For nearly a
score of years the Historical Society supplied him with an
interest, and his interest gave no indication of abatement up
to our removal from the Tremont Street building and its
immediate proximit}^ to the grave of Governor John Winthrop
to our present Fenway habitation. That was in 1899. In
the transfer Mr. Winthrop acquiesced. He saw that the
time for it had come ; but unfortunately, so far as the Society
was concerned, he seemed to have concluded that his time
had come also. Though after our removal an occasional
visitor at the building, he ceased to take part in our meet-
ings. His presence was greatly missed. For years he had
not only communicated frequent papers, but he had been
prominent in our discussions ; and, as was truly remarked
here at the meeting following his death, it was curious to
see how, when he took the floor, the Society, however somno-
lently inclined before, invariably became animated and ex-
pectant. Any atmosphere of indifference or tedium at once
was dispelled. He also for many years, especially during the
presidency of Dr. Ellis, interested himself greatly in the
Society's affairs and influenced its policy, usually for the better.
200 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
His great mistake was in not altogether identifying himself
with it ; for his so doing would certainly have increased his own
happiness, added largely to his usefulness, and probably have
prolonged his life. It would also have benefited the Society.
On the death of Dr. Ellis (1894) Mr. Winthrop ought to
have succeeded to the chair his grandfather and father had
occupied. That he should consent so to do was urged upon
him, not least by the writer of this sketch. He wholly de-
clined to consider the proposition ; and, when the younger
Robert C. Winthrop had made up his mind on any subject,
especially one concerning himself, he was distinctly the re-
verse of amenable to suggestions of change. But had he in
this case been willing to accept the chair which would gladly
have been proffered him, and then occupied himself actively
in re-editing his first Massachusetts ancestor's journal, and
publishing the family papers, he would have rendered his
later years far happier while making a notable contribution
to history. He had the ability ; he had the culture ; he had
the material, and the means to use it ; unfortunately he
lacked both ambition and incentive.
Dying at his house in Boston on Monday, June 5, 1905, Mr.
Winthrop was buried the succeeding Friday from the St.
John's Memorial Chapel of the Episcopal Theological School
at Cambridge, erected by his father-in-law, Robert M. Mason,
in memory of his wife and children. It was also character-
istic of Mr. Winthrop that he gave detailed directions as to
the exercises on the occasion, specifying as a hymn the English
rendering of the Dies irce, dies ilia, — " Oh ! day of wrath,
oh! dreadful day." He left a widow and three children, one
son and two daughters: but, for the first time since the organ-
ization of this Society on the 24th of January, 1791, the name
of Winthrop ceased to appear on its roll. In the case of no
other family had membership been both original and unbroken.
1906.] REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 201
ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL, 1906.
The Annual Meeting was held on Thursday, the 12th in-
stant, at twelve o'clock, noon ; the President in the chair.
The record of the March meeting was read and approved ;
and the Librarian and Corresponding Secretary presented
their monthly reports.
Mr. Lindsay Swift, of Boston, was elected a Resident
Member.
It was announced that a new Volume of the Proceedings —
Volume XIX. of the second series — and a new serial, com-
prising the record of the January and February meetings were
ready for distribution.
Messrs. Charles C. Smith, Winslow Warren, and Edward
Channing were appointed a Committee to publish a further
selection from the Bowdoin and Temple Papers, of which the
first part was published in 1897.
Mr. James F. Hunnewell, Senior Member at Large of the
Council, presented their report, as follows : — •
Report of the Council.
The passing year brings at its close the annual Review
of the Society's history given in the Report of the Council,
including financial, personal, literary, and general subjects.
From the Treasurer, Librarian, and Cabinet-Keeper, come the
detailed accounts of their departments.
The estate of the Society, investment and literary or art
property, continues, we might say by good habits, to increase.
By degrees, and sometimes by bounds, it grows larger, and it
also continues to receive good care. As the Treasurer and
Auditors show us, the amount of investment for income has
reached the total of 8424,070.39 with a present market value
of $475,000, belonging to twenty-two Funds.
If we would fully realize the growth, we can look back over
what is called the active period of a human life, and see what
26
202 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
these totals were thirty years ago, in 1876 — about $52,300, in
five Funds.
These results have not come by gifts from suddenly acquired
millions, but from good old New England thrift. We can,
for instance, well reflect on what we have derived from the
patient economies of Thomas Dowse, and of John Langdon
Sibley. The whole list of benefactors is, indeed, one of old
local worth. During the year Funds have been increased that
bear one of the most distinguished family names in Massachu-
setts. By the will of Robert Charles Winthrop, the younger
of that name, $5000 were added to the Fund bequeathed by
his father, and $2000 to that bequeathed by William Winthrop
of Malta.
Very remarkable additions to the Society's treasures were
made by the bequest of William S. Appleton of United States
Coins and Medals announced in June, and by the gift of the
Winthrop Papers in October. Each of these great collections,
very exceptional of its kind and of national importance, is
placed here, wisely we may think.
Nature moves on its course inevitable and resistless, and
our roll of the departed continues for the current year. Of
Resident Members, Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. — distin-
guished contributor of papers and of funds, born December 7,
1834, elected May 8, 1879, — died in Boston June 5, 1905.
James M. Barker, born 1839, elected April 9, 1896, died in
Boston October 3, 1905.
Stephen Salisbury, prominent in many offices, born 1835,
elected November 10, 1881, died November 16, 1905 — last of
the Salisburys of Worcester.
William Phineas Upham, born 1836, elected November 11,
1875, died in Newtonville November 23, 1905.
Of Corresponding Members, John Hay, eminent diploma-
tist, elected June, 1900, died in Newbury, N. H., July 1,1905.
There have been two resignations : John Carver Palfrey,
Resident, December 14, 1905 (who died January 29, 1906),
and William Ashmead Courtenay, Corresponding, also on
December 14, 1905. Deaths, 5 ; resignations, 2.
Six Resident, and three Corresponding Members have been
elected. Of the former, Henry Greenleaf Pearson, April 13,
1905; Bliss Perry, May 11, 1905; John Lathrop, December
14, 1905 ; Edwin Doak Mead, January 11, 1906 ; Edwin Henry
1906.] REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 203
Clement, February 8, 1906, and William Endicott, March 8,
1906. Of the latter, Gabriel Hanotaux of Paris, May 11, 1905 ;
Hubert Hall of London, December 14, 1905, and Andrew
Cunningham McLaughlin, March 8, 1906. There are now two
vacancies in the Resident Membership.
Important among personal events was, in January, the
resignation caused by illness, of the Rev. Dr. Edward J.
Young, for the past twenty-two years Recording Secretary;
also the election of his successor, Mr. Edward Stan wood.
Of papers read to the Society there has been no lack in
number, in variety, and in subject. Through more than a
century offerings of the sort have been made, yet still there is
material and ability for more, and it is well to observe results
in the past year.
At the May meeting President Adams spoke of three pam-
phlets : "The Naming of Hull," by Albert Matthews, Presi-
dent Smith's Address at Clinton on Shays's Rebellion, and Mr.
Bingham of Ashville, N. C, on " Sectional Misunderstand-
ings " ; Mr. William R. Thayer read a long and brilliant
paper on "The Outlook in History"; Mr. Franklin B. San-
born spoke of two early Colonial physicians, Dr. Greenland
and Dr. Barefoot ; Mr. James F. Hunnewell presented " Latest
and Earliest Town Views " with gift of five local views, and
exhibition of others made in the fifteenth century ; and Hon.
Samuel A. Green a paper on the " Washington Oak at Mount
Vernon."
At the June meeting President Adams read a long and
important paper, a result of much thought and keen personal
observation, entitled " Some Notes made in Africa on the Brit-
ish Occupation of Egypt and the Soudan, and on the Status of
the African in the Upper Nile Region. 1 ' This memorial of his
notable visit to the interior of the " Dark Continent " — on
which he threw much light — was not, at his suggestion,
printed in the Proceedings. We heard in it an account of the
most distant and remarkable tour ever made by a President of
this Society.
At the October meeting he read, in part, a longer paper,
which is printed in full with the record of the meeting. It
relates to " Mr. Rhodes's Fifth Volume." It is a review of
important features of our Civil War made with the character-
istic force and learning of its author on passages written by
204 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
one suggested to have the place of our American Clarendon.
Mr. Charles C. Smith communicated long extracts from the
interesting manuscript Memoirs of the Rev. Dr. John Pierce
of Brookline, and added some remarks on them.
At the November meeting William A. Dunning, LL. D., of
Columbia University, a Corresponding Member, read a paper
on u A Little More Light on Andrew Johnson " — much more
light, it might be said, on that president's noted first annual
message ; and Mr. Charles P. Bowditch presented documents
and remarks on the treatment of negro seamen at the South
in 1842-1843.
In December Mr. Charles C. Smith continued instructive
extracts from the Memoirs of the Rev. Dr. John Pierce ; Hon,
Samuel A. Green communicated j:or Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
family letters by Mrs. John T. Kirkland, giving very interesting
accounts of her social life abroad in 1830-1832 ; and President
Adams communicated a letter from the Hon. John Quincy
Adams, and a long and important account of that statesman
in the Twenty-second Congress.
In January, President Adams presented an admirable
Memorial to Congress on the preservation of the frigate " Con-
stitution" which was signed by all the officers of the Society;
Mr. Dalton read a letter on Designs upon Postage Stamps of
the United States, and Mr. Stanwood a paper on the Massa-
chusetts Election in 1806.
In February, Hon. Samuel A. Green, on behalf of Hon.
John Bigelow, senior Corresponding Member, presented a
paper on Nini's statuette of Benjamin Franklin, and Mr. San-
born one on " S! John de Crevecoeur, the American Farmer."
In March, President Adams narrated the history of his book-
plate, based upon that of John Adams, 1783, and forming, we
can well believe, the most historic book-plate in our country.
Colonel Thomas L. Livermore read a long and interesting
paper on the Appomattox Campaign, refuting an unhistorical
report concerning the retreat of General Lee. Mr. Charles K.
Bolton followed, with a paper on " McCrady's opinion of Gen-
eral Greene." These two papers are important in correcting
history.
Other literary work especially for the Society is in Memoirs
of deceased Members, that are not only tributes to former
associates, but that, in the course of years, form a valuable
1906.] EEPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 205
and interesting Biographical Dictionary of Worthies of the
State.
In April, Mr. John T. Morse, Jr., presented a long and ad-
mirable Memoir of a typical Bostonian of the old, higher class,
Colonel Henry Lee ; and Mr. Nathaniel Paine and President
G. Stanley Hall, one of Senator George Frisbie Hoar. From
among all his many widely varied associates this tribute comes
well from his townsmen, friends of many years. In view of
the immense services to country and to mankind rendered by
the Great Senator, differences of opinion fade, and each of us
may well say with Hamlet (I, 2) : —
" He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again."
Also Hon. William W. Crapo presented his Memoir of John
S. Brayton, distinguished antiquary and business, man of
southeastern Massachusetts.
In October came Judge James M. Barker's Memoir of
Henry Walbridge Taft, of Pittsfield, representing another ex-
treme part of the State. In December, Mr. Samuel Savage
Shaw gave a detailed and interesting account of the busy life
of Uriel H. Crocker, and in March, Prof. H. W. Haynes a
Memoir of Judge Mellen Chamberlain, also later one of
Theodore Lyman, and one of Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., were
presented by President Adams.
The Serial Publications of the Society, have been as usual,
continued ; the Collections reaching the fifth volume of the
seventh series (Part third of the Heath Papers), or the sixty-
fifth since the start in 1792, and the Proceedings the nine-
teenth of the second series, or the fortieth volume since the
beginning in 1859. Besides these one hundred and five vol-
umes, with their great amount and variety of historical matter,
the Society has issued (besides some smaller work) its Cata-
logue of 1811, one volume, and the far larger one of 1860 two
volumes, also Twelve Lectures at the Lowell Institute, 1869,
one volume, and, in 1906, Catalogue of the Library and Col-
lection of Letters, etc., bequeathed by the Rev. Robert C.
Waterston, thus making one hundred and nine octavos in the
one hundred and fifteen years of the Society's life — proving
active as well as good work.
Three other events in the Society's history during the year
206 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
should be mentioned. It, and especially its President, may
well be congratulated on the success of efforts made to preserve
the historic frigate " Constitution." Very pleasant to the many
attendants was the luncheon given by Vice-President Rhodes,
April 13th, and that given by President Adams, June 8th.
Apart from services to the Society its members have proved
their activity by works on their own account, a list of which
for the past year has been handed to me, and is appended to
this Report.
With a long and honorable past, and a flourishing present,
this Society can, with due care, have an even longer, successful
future.
Without instructions about subjects for comment, I may,
perhaps, be allowed to follow precedents, and mention some
of my own thoughts.
This Society, like others of its kind, is a trust — in the
old meaning of the word. In regard to invested funds the
course is plain,— they must from time to time be changed, but
always so as at least to preserve the principal. In regard to
books, manuscripts, and plates the course should be substan-
tially the same, without the change but with the preservation,
especially when these possessions are of exceptional rarity,
and cannot like money be replaced. The collection here, for
example, is particularly one of early New England history and
literature. It is impressive, startling, when we realize the
small number of copies of these earlier printed works that
exist. On one not very long shelf all could stand. Years of
watching are now needed for obtaining most of them, and
many of the later works of history and literature owned by the
Society are of increasing rarity, its manuscripts are, of course,
unique. Available sources for fresh supplies are almost
exhausted.
Two hundred and more years hence, intelligent men will
want to know what were the fine and rare books of the
seventeenth to the nineteenth century, and to consult them.
Amid the wear and loss ceaselessly occurring, here is a place
for preservation, and with that under due and careful guard
there can be all proper use.
Most of the treasures of late obtainable have been saved and
preserved with loving care by collectors ; by such care they
should everywhere be kept.
1906.]
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 207
Around this Society at its meetings is a collection of litera-
ture fit to surround any group of scholars in the English-speak-
ing world. The benign old collector of the volumes looks down
on you, and on them. And a greater also looks down on you
and them — the Shakespeare of Romance turning thought to
his wonderful library that long after him still looks on the room
he made and loved, and out on the broad lawn and the rippling
Tweed, also his delight. The sunshine streams in, both here
and there, and brightens the golden array of precious works,
and may men of the twenty-second century see all of them
as fair. 1
Publications of Members.
A Milestone Planted. Address of Charles Francis Adams at Lin-
coln, Massachusetts, April 23, 1904, on the One Hundred and Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town.
The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the
Massachusetts Bay : to which are prefixed the Charters of the Prov-
ince. With historical and explanatory notes, and an appendix. Volume
XIII., being Volume VIII. of the Appendix, containing Resolves, etc.,
1741-1746. Edited by Melville M. Bigelow.
Cases on the Law of Bills, Notes and Cheques. By Melville M.
Bigelow. Second edition by F. L. Simpson.
A History of the United States. Vol. I. The Planting of a Nation
in the New World. 1000-1660. By Edward Channing.
The Jeffersonian System. By Edward Channing. [Vol. XII. of
" The American Nation," edited by Albert Bushnell Hart.]
Curious Features of some of the early notes or bills used as a circu-
lating medium in Massachusetts. By Andrew McFarland Davis.
P^mergent" Treasury-supply in Massachusetts in early days. By
Andrew McFarland Davis.
The Limitation of Prices in Massachusetts, 1776-1779. By Andrew
McFarland Davis.
The England and Holland of the Pilgrims, By the late Henry M.
Dexter, and his son Morton Dexter.
An Historical Address delivered at Groton, Massachusetts, July 12,
1905, by request of the citizens, on the celebration of the Two Hun-
dred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of the Town. By
Samuel Abbott Green, a native of the Town. With an Appendix.
Same, with the Proceedings of the day, published by the Town.
Peabody Education Fund. Proceedings of the Trustees at their
1 The references in the last paragraph are to the large portrait of Thomas
Dowse at the head of the room, and to the white marble bust of Sir Walter
Scott at the upper right-hand corner.
208 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
Forty-seventh meeting, New York, 4 October, 1905. Edited by
Samuel A. Green, Secretary and General Agent.
Man without a Country. By Edward Everett Hale. School Edi-
tion, new introduction and notes by the author.
The American Nation ; a History from original sources by associated
scholars. Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, advised by various Histor-
ical Societies. Vols. VI. to XIII., of which Vol. XII. on " The Jef-
fersonian System" is by our associate, Edward Channing; Vol. VII.,
on " France in America," by Reuben Gold Thwaites, a Corresponding
Member ; and Vols. X., XL, on " The Federal Constitution," and " The
Federalist System," by Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin, a Corre-
sponding Member.
Essentials in American History, from the discovery to the present
day. By Albert Bushnell Hart.
Essentials in English History. By Albert Perry Walker, in consul-
tation with Albert Bushnell Hart.
George Frisbie Hoar. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
History of the United States from 986 to 1905. New edition, re-
vised to date. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson and William
Macdonald.
Part of a Man's Life. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Diocese of Massachusetts. Twelfth Annual Address of the Rt. Rev.
William Lawrence, D.D., to the Convention of the Diocese, May,
1906. ,
The Keeping of a Parish Register. A letter to the Clergy of the
Diocese. By William Lawrence.
One Hundred Deacons. By William Lawrence.
History of the United States. By J. W. Garner and Henry Cabot
Lodge.
Memoir of Colonel Henry Lee, with Selections from his Writings
and Speeches. By John T. Morse, Jr.
The Negro and the Nation. By George S. Merriam.
Ashfield Children's exhibit and prize day. By Charles Eliot Norton.
John Brown and his Friends. By Franklin B. Sanborn.
The Diocesan Library, being the Twenty-second Annual Report
made to the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
Diocese of Massachusetts, May, 1906. By Edmund F. Slafter.
James Gillespie Blaine. By Edward Stanwood. [American States-
men, second series.]
A Short History of Venice. By William R. Thayer.
The Annual Report of the Treasurer and the Report of the
Auditiug Committee were presented in print : —
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 209
Report of the Treasurer.
In compliance with the requirements of the By-Laws,
Chapter VII., Article 1, the Treasurer respectfully submits
his Annual Report, made up to March 31, 1906.
The special funds held by him are twenty-two in number,
and are as follows : —
I. The Appleton Fund, which was created Nov. 18, 1854,
by a gift to the Society, from Nathan Appleton, William Ap-
pleton, and Nathaniel I. Bowditch, trustees under the will of
Samuel Appleton, of stocks of the appraised value of ten thou-
sand dollars. These stocks were subsequently sold for $12,203,
at which sum the fund now stands. The income is applicable
to " the procuring, preserving, preparation, and publication of
historical papers." The cost of publishing the Heath Papers
was charged to the income of this fund.
II. The Massachusetts Historical Trust-Fund, which
now stands, with the accumulated income, at $10,000. This
fund originated in a gift of two thousand dollars from the
Hon. David Sears, presented Oct. 15, 1855, and accepted by
the Society Nov. 8, 1855. On Dec. 26, 1866, it was increased
by a gift of five hundred dollars from Mr. Sears, and another
of the same amount from another associate, Nathaniel Thayer.
The annual income must be added to the principal between
July and January, or by " a recorded vote " of " the Society "
it may " be expended in such objects as to them may be desir-
able." The directions in Mr. Sears's declaration of trust may
be found in the printed Proceedings for November, 1855.
III. The Dowse Fund, given to the Society by George
Livermore and Eben. Dale, executors of the will of Thomas
Dowse, April 9, 1857, for the "safe keeping" of the Dowse
Library, which was formally given by Mr. Dowse to the So-
ciety in July, 1856. It amounts to 110,000. The income for
the year has been placed to the credit of the General Account,
in accordance with what was understood to be the wish of
the executors.
IV. The Peabody Fund, which was presented by the
eminent banker and philanthropist George Peabody, in a letter
dated Jan. 1, 1867, and now stands at $22,123. The income
is available only for the publication and illustration of the
Society's Proceedings and Memoirs, and for the preservation
27
210 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
of the Society's Historical Portraits. The cost of publishing a
Consolidated Index to the Second Series of the Proceedings,
for the preparation of which a committee has been appointed,
will be charged against the income of this fund.
V. The Savage Fund, which was a bequest of 15,000
from the Hon. James Savage, President from 1841 to 1855,
received in June, 1873. By a change of the original invest-
ments the principal was increased $1,000, and the fund now
stands on the books at the sum of $6,000. The income is to
be used for the increase of the Society's Library.
VL The Erastus B. Bigelow Fund, which was given in
February, 1881, by Mrs. Helen Bigelow Merriman, in recogni-
tion of her father's interest in the work of the Society. The
original sum was one thousand dollars ; but the interest was
added to the principal to bring the amount up to $2,000, at
which it now stands. There is no restriction as to the use
to be made of this fund ; but up to the present time the
income has been used only for the purchase of books for the
Library.
VII. The William Winthrop Fund, which last year
stood at the sum of $3,000, was received Oct. 13, 1882, under
the will of William Winthrop, for many years a Correspond-
ing Member of the Society. By the will of our associate the
younger Robert C. Winthrop the sum of $2,000 was given to
the Society to be added to and form part of the fund be-
queathed by his kinsman. This sum was received by the
Treasurer, Oct. 13, 1905, exactly twenty-three years after the
receipt of the original bequest ; and the fund now stands at
$5,000. The income is to be applied " to the binding for better
preservation of the valuable manuscripts and books apper-
taining to the Society."
VIII. The Richard Frothingham Fund, which repre-
sents a gift to the Society, on the 23d of March, 1883, from
the widow of Richard Frothingham, Treasurer from 1847 to
1877, of a certificate of twenty shares in the Union Stock Yard
and Transit Co., of Chicago, of the par value of $100 each,
and of the stereotype plates of Mr. Frothingham's " Siege of
Boston," " Life of Joseph Warren," and " Rise of the Repub-
lic." The fund stands on the Treasurer's books at $3,000,
exclusive of the copyright. There are no restrictions on the
uses to which the income may be applied.
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 211
IX. The General Fund, which represents the following
items: —
1. A gift of two thousand dollars from the residuary estate
of Mary Prince Townsend, by the executors of her will,
William Minot and William Minot, Jr., in recognition of
which, by a vote of the Society, passed June 13, 1861, the
Treasurer was " directed to make and keep a special entry in
his account books of this contribution as the donation of Miss
Mary P. Townsend."
2. A legacy of two thousand dollars from Henry Harris,
received in July, 1867.
3. A legacy of one thousand dollars from our associate
George Bemis, received in March, 1879.
4. A gift of one hundred dollars from our associate Ralph
Waldo Emerson, received in April, 1881.
5. A legacy of one thousand dollars from our associate
Williams Latham, received in May, 1884.
6. A bequest of five shares in the Cincinnati Gas-Light
and Coke Co. from George Dexter, Recording Secretary
from 1878 to 1883, received in June, 1884. This bequest for
several years stood on the Treasurer's books at $900, at which
sum the shares were valued when the incomes arising from
separate investments were all merged in one consolidated
account. Besides the regular quarterly dividends there has
been received up to the present time from the sale of sub-
scription rights, etc., the sum of $337.56, which has been
added to the nominal amount of Mr. Dexter's bequest.
7. A legacy of one thousand dollars from our associate
Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, received in February, 1895.
8. A gift of one hundred dollars from Horace Davis, a
Corresponding Member, received in April, 1904.
9. A gift of one hundred dollars from our associate Edward
D. Harris, received in March, 1905.
10. Twenty-nine commutation fees of one hundred and
fifty dollars each.
11. The sum of 829,955.17 was withdrawn from the proceeds
of the sale of the Tremont Street estate, and added to this
fund ; the sum of 8731.70 received from the Medical Library
for cost of party-wall was also deducted from the cost of the
real estate, and added to this fund ; and in closing the accounts
for the current year a payment of 8397 for permanent improve-
212 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April
merits was charged to this fund and credited to Building Ac-
count. The net sum which has been credited to the fund
from this source is $30,289.87.
12. In March, 1888, when all the securities belonging to the
Society were transferred to the consolidated investments, the
sum of |100 was added to this fund to represent the increased
market value at that time of an eight per cent bond of the
Quincy and Palmyra Railroad Co. for $1,000, bought at par
many years before, and specially held for this account.
The amount of the fund at the present time is $43,277.43.
X. The Anonymous Fund, which originated in a gift
of $1,000 to the Society in April, 1887, communicated in a
letter to the Treasurer, from a valued associate, printed in the
Proceedings (2d series, vol. iii. pp. 277, 278). A further gift
of $250 was received from the same generous friend in April,
1888. The income has been added to the principal; and in
accordance with the instructions of the giver this policy is to
be continued (see Proceedings, 2d series, vol. xiii. pp. 6Q, 67).
The fund now stands at $3,277.44.
XL The William Amory Fund, which was a bequest of
$3,000, from our associate William Amory, received Jan. 7,
1889. There are no restrictions on the uses to which the
income may be applied.
XII. The Lawrence Fund, which was a bequest of
$3,000, from our associate the younger Abbott Lawrence
(H. XL, Class of 1849), received in June, 1894. The income
is " to be expended in publishing the Collections and Pro-
ceedings " of the Society. The cost of publishing Volume
XVII. of the Second Series of the Proceedings was charged
against the income of this fund.
XIII. The Robert C. Winthrop Fund, which originated
in a bequest of $5,000, from the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop,
President from 1855 to 1885, received in December, 1894.
No restrictions were attached to this bequest; but by a vote
of the Society passed Dec. 13, 1894, it was directed that the
income " shall be expended for such purposes as the Council
may from time to time direct." By the will of our late asso-
ciate Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., the sum of $5,000 was given to
the Society to be added to and form part of the fund be-
queathed by his father. This sum was received Oct. 13, 1905 ;
and this fund now stands at $10,000.
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 213
XIV. The Waterston Publishing Fund, which was a
bequest of 110,000, from our associate the Rev. Robert C.
Waterston, received in December, 1894. The income is to be
used as a publishing fund, in accordance with the provisions
of Mr. Waterston 's will printed in the Proceedings (2d series,
vol. viii. pp. 172, 173). The cost of publishing Volume
XVIII. of the Second Series of the Proceedings, was charged
against the income of this fund.
XV. The Ellis Fund, which originated in a bequest to
the Society of 130,000, by Dr. George E. Ellis, President from
1885 to 1894. This sum was paid into the Treasury Dec. 20,
1895 ; and to it has been added the sum of 81,663.66 received
from the sale of various articles of personal property, also given
to the Society by Dr. Ellis, which it was not thought desirable
to keep, making the whole amount of the fund 131,663.66. No
part of the original sum can be used for the purchase of other
real estate in exchange for the real estate specifically devised
by Dr. Ellis's will.
Besides the bequest in money, Dr. Ellis by his will gave to
the Society his dwelling-house No. 110 Marlborough Street,
with substantially all its contents. In the exercise of the dis-
cretion which the Society was authorized to use, this house
was sold for the sum of $25,000, and the proceeds invested in
the more eligible estate on the corner of the Fenway and
Boylston Street. The full sum received from the sale was
entered on the Treasurer's books, to the credit of Ellis
House, in perpetual memory of Dr. Ellis's gift.
XVI. The Lowell Fund, which was a bequest of the
Hon. John Lowell (H. U., Class of 1843), amounting to $3,000,
received Sept. 13, 1897. There are no restrictions on the uses
to which the income may be applied. The cost of publishing
Volume XX. of the Second Series of the Proceedings will
be charged against the income of this fund.
XVII. The Waterston Fund, which was received April
21, 1900, in full satisfaction of a bequest from our associate
the Rev. Robert C. Waterston. Some legal questions hav-
ing arisen in connection with this bequest, the matter was
compromised, and the sum of $5,000 was received, as stated
in the Proceedings (2d series, vol. xiv. pp. 163, 164). The
income is to be used for printing a catalogue of the Waterston
Library, for printing documents from it, and for making addi-
214 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Apkil,
tions to the Library from time to time. The catalogue of the
Library was completed and issued a few weeks ago.
XVIII. The Waterston Fund No. 2, which was a fur-
ther bequest of 110,000 from Mr. Waterston, in regard to
which there were no legal questions, and which was also re-
ceived April 21, 1900. The income is to be used for " print-
ing and publishing any important or interesting autograph,
original manuscripts, letters or documents which may be in
possession of" the Society.
Besides the three funds, for the creation of which provision
was made by Mr. Waterston's will, the Treasurer received,
under the will, the sum of $10,000, to be applied to the fitting
up of a room or portion of a fire-proof building for the com-
modious and safe keeping of the Waterston Collection. A
room was accordingly set apart for that purpose, and the
larger part of this sum was expended in making it con-
venient and attractive. Some further expenditures must be
made on this account, and any balance of cash remaining
in the hands of the Treasurer will be used, in accordance with
the terms of the will, in adding books to the collection, under
the direction of the Council.
XIX. The Robert Charles Billings Fund. This was
a gift of $10,000, received April 16, 1903, from the surviving
executors of the will of the late Robert Charles Billings. The
income is to be used only for publications. The cost of pub-
lishing Volume XIX. of the Second Series of the Proceedings
was charged against the income of this fund.
XX. The John Langdon Sibley Fund, which was cre-
ated under the will of our associate, printed in the Proceedings
(2d series, vol. ii. pp. 168-170), was received in two instal-
ments, Aug. 5, 1903, and April 18, 1904. The income must
be applied in the manner set forth in Mr. Sibley's will. The
fund now stands on the books at $158,933.11.
XXI. The Charlotte A. L. Sibley Fund, which was
created under her will, printed in the Proceedings (2d series,
vol. xvi. pp. 21-23), was also received in two instalments,
Aug. 5, 1903, and April 18, 1904. There are no restrictions
on the uses to which the income may be applied, and it has
been carried to the credit of the General Account. The fund
stands at 122,509.48.
XXII. The Thomas L. Winthrop Fund, which is de-
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 215
signed to perpetuate the memory of the fourth President of
the Society. In the early part of 1837 he gave to the Society
a beautiful copy of Audubon's u Birds of America." Since that
time other organizations have come into existence which are
directly interested in the study of natural history, and as the
volumes were little used in this Library, it was thought best,
after consultation with the descendants of the donor, to sell
the volumes and add the proceeds to our permanent funds.
This was done by the Librarian under the direction of the
Council, and the sum of $2,000 was received by the Treasurer
April 9, 1905. For the present the annual income will be
added to the principal.
On Dec. 16, 1903, the Treasurer received from the ex-
ecutors under the will of our associate the late Hon. Mellen
Chamberlain the sum of $5,520, on account of Judge Cham-
berlain's bequest to the Society to defray the cost of publishing
his " History of Chelsea." This bequest has been treated as
an open account, — all payments for the History have been
charged to it, and interest credited on unexpended balances
available for the purpose. The payments to the present time
amount to $2,259.60. It is expected that on the final settle-
ment of Judge Chamberlain's estate the Society will receive
a further sum from the executors of his will.
The Treasurer also holds a deposit book in the Five Cent
Savings Bank for $100 and interest, which is applicable to the
care and preservation of the beautiful model of the Brattle
Street Church, deposited with us in April, 1877.
In January, 1905, the Treasurer received from our associate
Thomas Minns the gift of one of the earliest deposit books
issued by the " Provident Institution for Savings in the Town
of Boston," to Miss Maria Antoinette Parker, February 21,
1821, with a transfer of the balance of principal and interest
now or hereafter to be represented by it. Whenever the
interest amounts to $25, it is to be used for the purchase of
books for the Library ; and the deposit book itself is to be kept
as an interesting relic of the earlier time. It is worthy of notice
that a former Treasurer and President of this Society, James
Savage, was one of the founders and afterward President of
the Provident Institution, and that the two corporations were
for a considerable period joint owners of the estate on Tremont
Street which they jointly occupied.
216 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
As these two deposit books represent constantly varying
sums, it has not been thought desirable to include them in
the General Fund, to which they naturally belong, though
the income from them is applicable only to prescribed
uses.
It should not be forgotten that besides the gifts and bequests
represented by these funds, which the Treasurer is required to
take notice of in his Annual Report, numerous gifts have been
made to the Society from time to time, and expended for the
purchase of the real estate, or in promoting the objects for
which the Society was organized. A detailed account of these
gifts was included in the Annual Report of the Treasurer,
dated March 31, 1887, printed in the Proceedings (2d series,
vol. iii. pp. 291-296) ; and in the list of the givers there enu-
merated will be found the names of many honored associates,
now living or departed, and of other gentlemen, not members
of the Society, who were interested in the promotion of histori-
cal studies. They gave liberally in the day of small things ;
and to them the Society is largely indebted for its present
prosperity and usefulness.
To the benefactors there mentioned must be added Charles
Francis Adams, President of the Society, who, in the sum-
mer of 1895, bought a lot of land on the Fenway (3,000
square feet), with a view of adding it to the lot bought by
the Society, in case the latter should prove too small. When
the plans for the new building were drawn, it was found to
be desirable to make some change in the lines of the Society's
estate, and the lot bought by the President was conveyed to
the Society, with a verbal understanding that he should re-
ceive for it an equal quantity of land on Boylston Street. In
February, 1901, a portion of unoccupied land on Boylston
Street (2,622-^ square feet) was sold to indemnify the Presi-
dent for the land conveyed by him to the Society. The dif-
ference ($3,000) between the sum paid by the President
($15,000) and the amount received for the land sold ($12,000)
was an absolute gift to the Society, and to this difference must
be added the interest on $15,000 from the date of the original
purchase up to the date of sale of the Boylston Street land, a
period of nearly six years.
The stock and bonds held by the Treasurer as investments
on account of the above-mentioned funds are as follows : —
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 217
$14,000 in the five per cent mortgage bonds of the Chicago and
West Michigan Railroad Co., due 1921 ;
$1,000 in a five per cent bond of the Chicago and North Michigan
Railroad Co., due 1931;
$5,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Rio Grande Western Rail-
road Co., due 1939;
$8,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Chicago, Burlington, and
Quincy Railroad Co., due 1921;
$3,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Chicago, Burlington, and
Quincy Railroad Co., due 1922;
$4,000 in the three and one-half per cent bonds of the Chicago,
Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Co., due 1949 ;
$5,000 in the five per cent gold bonds of the Cincinnati, Dayton,
and Ironton Railroad Co., due 1941 ;
$14,500 in the four per cent mortgage bonds of the Atchison,
Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Co., due 1995 ;
$9,000 in the adjustment four per cent bonds, due 1995; $2,000
in the convertible four per cent bonds, due 1995 ; and one hundred and
fifty-eight shares of the preferred stock of the same corporation ;
$11,000 in the five per cent collateral trust bonds of the Chicago
Junction Railways and Union Stock Yards Co., due 1915 ;
$10,000 in the five per cent bonds of the Oregon Short Line Railroad
Co., due 1946;
$10,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Oregon Short Line Railroad
Co., due 1929;
$12,000 in the five per cent bonds of the Lewiston-Concord Bridge Co.,
due 1924;
$6,000 in the four and one half per cent bonds of the Boston and
Maine Railroad Co., due 1944 ;
$10,000 in the four per cent bonds of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Co., due 1929;
$54,000 in the four per cent joint bonds of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road Co. and the Great Northern Railroad Co., due 1921 ;
$12,000 in the convertible five per cent bonds of the Kansas City
Stock Yards Co., due 1913 ;
$6,000 in fehe four per cent bonds of the Long Island Railroad Co.,
due 1949;
$12,000 in the four per cent bonds of the New York Central and
Hudson River Railroad Co., due 1934 ;
$8,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Bangor and Aroostook
Railroad Co., due 1951 ;
$4,500 in the seven per cent bonds of the Atchison and Nebraska
Railroad Co., due 1908;
$22,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Burlington and Missouri
River Railroad Co. in Nebraska, due 1910;
28
218 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
$2,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Detroit, Grand Rapids and
Western Railroad Co., due 1946;
$9,000 in the four per cent bonds of the Fitchburg Railroad Co., due
1927;
$3,000 in the five per cent bonds of the Kansas City, Clinton and
Springfield Railroad Co., due 1925;
$5,000 in the seven per cent bonds of the Kansas City, St. Joseph
and Council Bluffs Railroad Co., due 1907 ;
$2,000 in the five per cent bonds of the Lowell, Lawrence and
Haverhill Street Railway Co., due 1923 ;
$6,000 in the four per cent bonds of the West End Street Railway
Co., due 1915 ;
$25,000 in the six per cent mortgage notes of G. St. L. Abbott,
Trustee ;
$6,000 in the six per cent mortgage agreement of C. F. Adams,
Trustee ;
Fifty shares in the Merchants' National Bank of Boston ;
Fifty shares in the State National Bank of Boston ;
Fifty shares in the National Bank of Commerce of Boston ;
Fifty shares in the National Union Bank of Boston ;
Fifty shares in the Second National Bank of Boston ;
Twenty-five shares in the National Shawmut Bank of Boston ;
Thirty-five shares in the Boston and Albany Railroad Co.;
Twenty-five shares in the Old Colony Railroad Co. ;
Twenty-five shares in the preferred stock of the Fitchburg Rail-
road Co. ;
One hundred and fifty shares in the preferred stock of the Chicago
Junction Railways and Union Stock Yards Co. ;
Two hundred and fifty shares in the preferred stock of the American
Smelting and Refining Co. ;
One hundred and eighty-four shares in the Kansas City Stock
Yards Co. ;
Ten shares in the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Co., received in ex-
change for five shares in the Cincinnati Gas-Light and Coke Co. ;
Six shares in the Boston Real Estate Trust (of the par value of $1,000);
Five shares in the State Street Exchange ; and
Three shares in the Pacific Mills (of the par value of $1,000).
The net cost of these securities is $424,070.39 ; but their market value
is much higher.
The following abstracts and the trial balance show the pres-
ent condition of the several accounts : —
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 219
CASH ACCOUNT.
1905. DEBITS -
March 31. To balance on hand $2,070.42
1906.
March 31. „ receipts as follows : —
General Account 1,802.89
Consolidated Income 21,591.68
Income of Richard Frothingham Fund . 58.80
23,453.37
R. C. Winthrop Fund , . 5,000.00
W. Winthrop Fund 2,000.00
T. L. Winthrop Fund 2,000.00
Investments 6,444,73
$40,968.52
March 31. To balance brought down $1,820.37
1906. credits.
March 31. By payments as follows : —
Investments $23,341.00
Income of R. Frothingham Fund . . . 75.52
Income of E. B. Bigelow Fund .... 235.10
Income of Savage Fund 184.47
Income of Waterston Fund . . . . 1,215.29
Income of Waterston Publishing Fund . 67.90
Income of J. L. Sibley Fund 2,267.85
Income of C. A. L. Sibley Fund . . . 124.06
Income of Appleton Fund 907.14
Income of Peabody Fund 141.47
Income of Mass. Historical Trust Fund . 147.92
Income of R. C. Billings Fund .... 1,541.68
Income of Lawrence Fund 73.30
Chamberlain Bequest 912.60
Consolidated Income ........ 32.67
Income of Lowell Fund 65.30
General Account 7,417.88
— 15,410.15
Real Estate 397.00
„ balance on hand 1,820.37
$40,968.52
GENERAL ACCOUNT.
1905. debits.
March 31. To balance brought forward . $6,594.00
1906.
March 31. „ sundry charges and payments : —
Salaries of Librarian's Assistants . . . 2,698.50
Services of Janitor 965.00
Printing and binding 113.45
Stationery and postage . 72.63
Carried forward $3,849.58 $6,594.00
220
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
[April,
Brought forward $3,849.58 $6,594.00
Light . ' 78.24
Water 73.00
Coal and wood 606.63
Miscellaneous expenses ...... 565.02
Editing publications of the Society . . . 2,000.00
Repairs 245.41
— 7,417.88
„ balance carried forward 1,738.66
. $15,750.54
1906. CREDITS.
March 31. By sundry receipts : —
Interest . $83.84
Admission Fees . 150.00
Assessments 700.00
Sales of publications 864.65
Copyright, etc 4.40
. 1,802.89
Income of General Fund 2,458.79
Income of Ellis Fund 1,782.60
Income of Dowse Fund 562.98
Income of J. L. Sibley Fund 8,000.00
Income of C. A. L. Sibley Fund ....... 1,143.28
$15,750.54
March 31. By balance brought down $1,738.66
1906.
Income of General Fund.
DEBITS.
March 31. To amount carried to General Account $2,458.79
1906 CREDITS.
March 31. By proportion of consolidated income $2,458.79
Income of J. L. Sibley Fund.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount transferred to General Account $8,000.00
„ payments in accordance with the will 2,267.85
„ amount added to principal of J. L. Sibley Fund . . . 2,205 87
„ balance carried forward 2,603.37
$To7077.09
\,
1905. CREDITS.
March 31. By balance brought forward $6,253.81
1906
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 8,823.48
$15,077.09
March 31. By balance brought down . $2,603.37
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 221
Income of C. A. L. Sibley Fund.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount paid for books, etc $124.06
„ balance carried to General Account 1,143.28
$1,267.34
1906. CREDITS.
March 31. By proportion of consolidated income $1,267.34
Income of Ellis Fund.
DEBITS.
1906.
March 31. To amount carried to General Account . ...... $1,782.60
1906. credits.
March 31. By proportion of consolidated income , . $1,782.60
Income of E. B. Bigelow Fund.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount paid for books $235.10
„ balance carried forward 594.66
$829.76
1905. • credits.
March 31. By balance brought forward $717.16
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 112.60
$829.76
March 31. By balance brought forward $594.66
Income of Massachusetts Historical Trust Fund.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount paid for sundries ..'... $147.92
„ balance carried forward 3,195.03
$3,342.95
1905. credits.
March 31. By balance brought forward $2,779.97
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 562.98
$3 3 342.95
March 31. By balance brought forward $3,195.03
222 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
Income of Peabody Fund.
1906. DEBITS '
March 31. To amount paid for printing and binding $141.47
„ balance carried forward 2,916.00
$3,057.47
1905. CREDITS.
March 31. By balance brought forward $1,811.98
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 1,245.49
$3,057.47
March 31. By balance brought down $2,916.00
Income of Richard Frothingham Fund.
1906. DEBITS.
March 31. To amount paid for printing and binding $75 52
„ balance carried forward „ 1,904.32
$1,979.84
1905. CREDITS -
March 31. By amount brought forward $1,752.13
1906.
March 31. „ copyright received 58.80
„ proportion of consolidated income 168.91
SI, 979.84
March 31. By balance brought down $1,904.32
Income of Savage Fund.
1905. DEBITS -
March 31. To balance brought forward $375.42
1906.
March 31. „ amount paid for books 184.47
$559.89
March 31. To balance brought forward $222.10
1906. CREDITS.
March 31. By proportion of consolidated income $337.79
„ balance carried forward 222.10
$559.89
Income of Dowse Fund.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount transferred to General Account $562.98
1906. CREDIT8 -
March 31. By proportion of consolidated income
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 223
Income of William Winthrop Fund.
CREDITS.
1905.
March 31. By balance brought forward $197.37
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 218.91
$416.28
March 31. By amount brought forward $416.28
Income of Appleton Fund.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount paid for printing " Collections " $907.14
„ balance carried forward 4,570.46
$5,477. (
1905. CREDIT8 '
March 31. By amount brought forward $4,790.59
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 687.01
$5,477.60
March 31. By balance brought forward $4,570.46
Chamberlain Bequest.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount paid for preparation of copy of " History " . $912.60
„ balance carried forward 3,682.52
$4,595.12
CREDITS.
1905.
March 31. By balance brought forward $4,435.94
1906.
March 31. „ amount of interest added 159.18
$4,595.12
March 31. By balance brought down $3,682.52
Waterston Publishing Fund.
1906. DBBIT8 '
March 31. To amount paid for publishing " Proceedings " . . . . $67.90
„ balance carried forward 4,603.50
$4,671.40
T~
224 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
1905. CREDITS.
March 31. By amount brought forward $4,108.42
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 562.98
$4,671.40
March 31. By balance brought down $4,603.50
Income of Lawrence Fund.
1906. DEBITS.
March 31. To amount paid for " Proceedings " $73.30
„ balance brought forward 381.82
$455.12
1905. credits.
March 31. By amount brought forward $286.21
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 168.91
$455.12
March 31. By balance brought down . ■ $381.82
Income of R. C. Billings Fund.
1906. DEBITS '
March 31. To amount paid for printing "Proceedings" $1,541.68
„ balance carried forward 136.48
$1,678.16
1905. CREDITS.
March 31. By balance brought forward . $1,115.18
1906.
March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income 562.98
$1,678.16
March 31. By balance brought down $136.48
Income of Waterston Fund.
1906. DEBITS -
March 31. To amount paid for printing " Catalogue " $1,215.29
„ balance carried forward 462.39
$1,677.68
CREDITS.
1905.
March 31. By amount brought forward $1,396.19
1906.
'March 31. „ proportion of consolidated income . . . . . . . 281.49
$1,677.68
March 31. By balance brought down $462.39
1906.] REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 225
TRIAL BALANCE.
DEBITS.
Cash $1,820.37
Investments 424,070.39
Real Estate 97,990.32
Income of Savage Fund 222.10
$524,103.18
CREDITS.
Building Account . . $72,990.32
Ellis House 25,000.00
Appleton Fund 12,203.00
Dowse Fund 10,000.00
Massachusetts Historical Trust Fund 10,000.00
Peabody Fund 22,123.00
Savage Fund 6,000.00
Erastus B. Bigelow Fund 2,000.00
William Winthrop Fund 5,000.00
Richard Frothingham Fund 3,000.00
General Fund 43,277.43
Anonymous Fund 3,277.44
William Amory Fund 3,000.00
Lawrence Fund 3,000.00
Robert C. Winthrop Fund 10,000.00
Waterston Publishing Fund 10,000.00
Ellis Fund 31,663.66
Lowell Fund 3,000»00
Waterston Fund 5,000.00
Waterston Fund No. 2 10,000.00
Robert Charles Billings Fund 10,000.00
John Langdon Sibley Fund 158,933.11
Charlotte A. L. Sibley Fund 22,509.48
Thomas L. Winthrop Fund 2,112.60
General Account 1,738.66
Chamberlain Bequest 3,682.52
Waterston Library 3,947.14
Income of Lowell Fund 1,323.38
Income of Appleton Fund 4,570.46
Income of William Winthrop Fund 416.28
Income of Massachusetts Historical Trust Fund 3,195.03
Income of Richard Frothingham Fund 1,904.32
Income of William Amory Fund 1,118.51
Income of E. B. Bigelow Fund 594.66
Income of Lawrence Fund 381.82
Income of Robert C. Winthrop Fund 3,063.27
Income of Waterston Publishing Fund 4,603.50
Income of Waterston Fund 462.39
Income of Waterston Fund No. 2 3,355.35
Income of Robert C. Billings Fund 136.48
Income of Peabody Fund 2,916.00
Income of J. L. Sibley Fund 2,603 37
$524,103.18
29
226 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
The income for the year derived from the investments and
credited to the several funds, in proportion to the amount at
which they stand on the Treasurer's books, was about five
and five-eighths per cent.
Charles C. Smith,
Treasurer.
Boston, March 31, 1906.
Report of the Auditing Committee.
The undersigned, a Committee appointed to examine the
accounts of the Treasurer of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, as made up to March 31, 1906, have attended to that
duty, and report that they find them correctly kept and prop-
erly vouched ; that the securities held by the Treasurer for
the several funds correspond with the statement in his Annual
Report ; that the balance of cash on hand is satisfactorily
accounted for; and that the Trial Balance is accurately taken
from the Ledger.
Thomas Minns, ( n
p, T m \ Committee.
S. Lothrop Thorndike, (
Boston, April 9, 1906.
Mr. Minns added orally that he had made a careful esti-
mate of the market value of the securities held by the Treas-
urer, and that it amounted to $475,046, or $50,975.61 more
than they stand at on the Society's books.
The Librarian read his Report as follows : —
Report of the Librarian.
During the year there have been added to the Library : —
Books 396
Pamphlets 1,308
Unbound volumes of newspapers 10
Broadsides 45
Maps 2
Manuscripts 180
Bound volumes of manuscripts 43
In all 1,984
1906.] REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN. 227
Of the volumes added, 335 have been given, 99 bought, and
5 formed by binding. Of the pamphlets added, 1,114 have
been given, 188 bought, and 6 procured by exchange.
From the income of the Savage Fund there have been
bought 54 volumes, 53 pamphlets, and 4 unbound volumes of
newspapers.
From the income of the E. B. Bigelow Fund there have
been bought 441 single newspapers; and 3 volumes, containing
356 broadsides, have been bound, all relating to the War of
the Rebellion.
From the income of the John Langdon Sibley Fund there
have been bought 19 volumes, 17 pamphlets, 3 manuscripts,
2 broadsides, 5 photographs; and 2 volumes of newspaper cut-
tings have been bound, all relating to Harvard College ; and
from that of the Charlotte A. L. Sibley Fund 26 volumes, 118
pamphlets, and 1 manuscript.
Of the books added to the Rebellion Department 23 volumes
have been given, and 28 bought ; and of the pamphlets added,
168 have been given, and 44 bought. There are now in the
collection, 3,060 volumes, 5,861 pamphlets, 477 broadsides,
and 110 maps.
In the collection of manuscripts there are now 1,188 vol-
umes, 192 unbound volumes, 97 pamphlets with manuscript
notes, and 14,505 manuscripts.
The Library contains at the present time 49,247 volumes ;
and this enumeration includes the files of bound newspapers,
bound manuscripts, the Dowse Collection, the Waterston Col-
lection, and the Ellis books. The catalogue of the Waterston
Collection has been issued; and the Ellis books have been
added to the aggregate.
The Winthrop manuscripts, 42 volumes in all, were received
from Mrs. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., on December 1, 1905, and
have been placed in the cabinet given in April, 1899, by Mr.
Winthrop for their future reception.
The manuscripts and newspapers from the estate of the late
Charles E. French have been received, and are still awaiting
their assortment and examination, which will be made soon.
The delay has been caused by the necessary changes to be
made in the rooms overhead and the rearrangement of the
books, in consequence of the removal of the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences from the building.
228 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
The number of pamphlets now in the Library, including
duplicates, is 108,832, and the number of broadsides, including
duplicates, is 4,692.
Respectfully submitted,
Samuel A. Green,
Lihrarian.
April 12, 1906.
The Report of the Cabinet-Keeper was presented as
follows: —
Report of the Cabinet- Keeper.
During the past year gifts have been received for the
Cabinet as follows:
Etchings of Faneuil Hall, Boston, in 1870, and of the Old
Corner Bookstore, Boston, in 1850, by Sidney L. Smith, being
the fifth and sixth publications of the Iconographic Society.
Given by James F. Hunnewell.
Three photographs of the Harvard Church in Charlestown,
the exterior taken before the building of the Elevated Rail-
road ; exterior showing the old spire inside the later one ; and
the interior of the Church. Given by James F. Hunnewell.
An engraving of the " Mayflower " by E. G. Farmer, after
the painting by Marshall Johnson, published by the John A.
Lowell Company, Boston, 1905. Given by Charles Francis
Adams.
An etched portrait of President Charles W. Eliot, by Sidney
L. Smith, published by the John A. Lowell Company, Boston,
1905. Given by Sidney L. Smith.
A Lexington cannon-ball and block, bought at the sale of
the effects of Hon. Edward Everett, in 1865. A bequest from
Charles Edward French.
Six pieces of Confederate money. Given by Joseph Kolsky.
A souvenir spoon of the Lewis and Clarke Centennial Expo-
sition in Portland, Oregon, 1905. Given by Thomas Minns.
A colored photograph of " A Prospect of ye Great Town of
Boston in New England in America" after an engraving by
J. Turner, 1744, on the titlepage of the American Magazine of
that year ; one of three copies made by Edward Walker West,
and given by him.
Three framed engravings of the Taking, by Admiral Vernon,
of Porto Bello in 1739; of the same place in 1739, with a
1906.] REPORT OF THE CABINET-KEEPER. 229
description by William Richardson ; and of Chagre in 1740.
Given by the heirs of William S. Appleton.
The Centennial Medal, 1804-1904, of the New York His-
torical Society, bearing in relief, John Pintard, founder, Robert
Benson, first President, and the old and new buildings. Given
by Charles Francis Adams.
Two canes, one made from the keel of the Constitution bear-
ing the inscription, "Taken from the Keel of the Constitution
and presented to S. Hinckley by his grandson, J. H. Lyman,
June 26th, 1833," and the other made from the Kearsarge,
bearing the inscription, " Kearsarge. J. Laidley to J. H.
Lyman, Feb. 14th, 1873." Legacy from John Chester Lyman.
A colored fac-simile reprint of Paul Revere's Boston Mas-
sacre. Given by Charles W. Burrows.
A photograph of the last survivor of the old Milldam trees,
standing on lot No. 595 Beacon Street, taken in October, 1905,
by Norman Leonard Thorndike Sheehan. Given by Thomas
William Silloway.
The Appleton collection of American Coins and Medals, and
Medals relating to Admiral Edward Vernon, bequeathed to
this Society by the ninth clause of the will of the late William
Sumner Appleton, which is as follows : —
" Ninth : — I give to the Trustees hereinafter named, their heirs and
assigns, my collection of coins and medals, with the cabinets to contain
them, and all my books, pamphlets, papers and manuscript matter relat-
ing to numismatics ; in trust, and for the purpose of sale * that is to
say, I desire them to offer and to earnestly endeavor to sell, either
to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or to the Public Library of
Boston, or to Harvard University, or to some similar and proper insti-
tution in the United States, the entire collection as above set forth ; the
whole is valued by me at about forty thousand dollars, but for the pur-
pose of sale the collection would, of course, be valued by some expert
or experts, such as Edward Frossard of New York ; in case of the
effecting of such sale, then to invest and hold the proceeds in trust ;
and for such purposes as are set forth in the eleventh clause of this
will ; but in case my said trustees shall not succeed in effecting such
sale within the period of two years from the date of probate of this will,
then my trustees shall transfer and deliver to the Massachusetts Histor-
ical Society all my coins and medals relating to George Washington,
Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Admiral Edward
Vernon, and all my medals relating in any way to the Territory now
comprised in the United States of America, or to the history thereof,
230 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
or to any organization therein, or to any citizens thereof, and all my
coins, pattern-pieces and paper-money struck or printed in or for any
part of the present United States of America, before the issue of the
regular coinage of the Mint of the United States in 1793, and all my
coins and pattern-pieces struck at the Mint of the United States since
its establishment ; and all the remainder of my collection of coins and
medals, with the cabinets to contain them, and all my books, pamphlets,
papers, and manuscript matter relating to numismatics my trustees shall
sell and dispose of to the best advantage, and shall invest and hold
the proceeds in trust, and for such purposes as are set forth in the
eleventh clause of this will."
The will of Mr. Appleton was duly proved and allowed in
the Probate Court for the County of Suffolk on May 28th,
1903, and contains this further provision relating to this
Society : —
" Fourteenth : — If by reason of the death of all my children with-
out issue, my trustees shall be unable to carry out the provisions of the
eleventh clause of this will, then I hereby direct my trustees to divide
and distribute all the property in their hands as follows, that is to say :
... to the Massachusetts Historical Society the sum of fifty thousand
dollars ; ... if my trustees shall still have in their hands unsold my
collection of coins and medals, as set forth in the ninth clause of this
will, then they shall convey and transfer my entire collection of coins
and medals, with the cabinets to contain them, and all my books, pam-
phlets, papers and manuscript matter relating to numismatics, to the
Massachusetts Historical Society."
The collection is not yet ready for exhibition as it is hoped
that a suitable place may be given it in one of the rooms
recently vacated by the American Academy, and that Mr.
William Sumner Appleton, son of the testator, will kindly
undertake its arrangement.
The bequest of Charles Edward French probably includes
other articles for the Cabinet, but the Committee to examine
the contents of the boxes containing the French legacies has
not yet reported.
Respectfully submitted,
Grenville H. Norcross,
Cabinet- Keeper.
Boston, April 12, 1906.
1906] ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 231
In the absence of Mr. Hill, the Report of the Committee to
examine the Library and Cabinet was read by Mr. Perry as
follows : —
Report of the Committee on the Library and Cabinet.
Your Committee have made an examination of the Library
and Cabinet. The Librarian, Dr. Green, and Cabinet-Keeper,
Mr. Nor cross, gave us every assistance we desired in our
investigation.
The interesting and valuable collection in the Cabinet ap-
peared to be arranged in as good a manner as the crowded
condition of the room devoted thereto would permit. As the
purpose of such a collection is principally to aid in the study
of the manners and customs of the past, as an historical study,
additional room, whenever the Society can furnish it, would
increase the usefulness of this collection.
With regard to the Library, we are pleased to find that a
large portion of the books is being transferred from the large
room, heretofore furnished principally with wooden shelves, to
the steel stacks on the third floor, recently vacated by the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, thus insuring greater
protection against possible loss by fire.
The efficiency of the Waterston Collection has been greatly
increased by the recent publication of a complete and very
valuable Catalogue.
The Library appeared, so far as we could judge, to be in
excellent working order, and we find that improvements are
constantly being made, as conditions will permit, to aid the
student of history in his investigation.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Gleason Hill, \
Bliss Perry, \ Committee.
Henry Greenleaf Pearson,]
Boston, April 7, 1906.
Mr. Hunnewell, from the Nominating Committee, pre-
sented the following list of candidates for the ensuing year,
and the entire list was duly elected by ballot : —
For President.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
232 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
For Vice-Presidents.
SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN.
JAMES FORD RHODES.
For Recording Secretary.
. EDWARD STANWOOD.
For Corresponding Secretary,
HENRY WILLIAMSON HAYNES.
For Treasurer.
CHARLES CARD SMITH.
For Librarian.
SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN.
For Cabinet- Keeper.
GRENVILLE HOWLAND NORCROSS.
For Members at Large of the Council.
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.
THOMAS LEONARD LIVER MORE.
SAMUEL SAVAGE SHAW.
NATHANIEL PAINE.
Dr. Green having been elected to two offices, Mr. Charles
P. Bowditch was on motion of Mr. Hunnewell elected an ad-
ditional member of the Council, so that that body should
comprise the usual number of individuals.
Remarks were also made during the meeting by the Presi-
dent, the Hon. William Everett, and Mr. T. W. Higginson.
After the completion of the regular business a recess was
taken. When the Society reassembled, a number of invited
guests were present, among them Mrs. William B. Rogers, the
only surviving child of the late James Savage. A marble bust
of Mr. Savage, a reproduction of the original, modelled by John
C. King for the Provident Institution for Savings, and now
in its possession, was ready to be unveiled ; the gift of Mrs.
Rogers to the Society. The President then said : —
Bearing length of existence in mind, — fifteen years more
than a century, — the list of those who have served this Society
as its presidents is not long. It numbers eight names only ;
and the term of service, varying from nine to thirty years, has
averaged a little less than fifteen. • But so far as connection
with the Society is concerned, its traditions and its growth,
J 906.] ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. 233
two among the eight, James Savage and Robert C. Win-
throp, stand out so pre-eminently that they constitute a class
by themselves. In the first place, their united occupation
of the chair covered no less than two-fifths of the Society's
whole existence; for, beginning in 1841, it extended to 1885.
Indeed, it just fails to connect us with the founders; for, though
nearly a third of our present number recall Mr. Winthrop as a
presiding officer, Thomas Walcut, the last of the original ten,
had died within the year preceding the first election of Mr.
Savage. In the next place, those four and forty years were, in
the history of our Society, very memorable ; they constitute, in
fact, our golden period. But it was in Mr. Winthrop's time, and
through his efficient action, that the great change took place.
Then, in his own language, the Society passed out of what he
not unfairly described — seeing it had lasted sixty-six years —
as "a pretty well protracted chrysalis stage, and was permitted
to display plumage and pinions, which promised a more sus-
tained and prosperous progress " than could theretofore have
been anticipated for it.
The present is the fiftieth annual meeting held since Mr.
Winthrop indulged in this figure of speech. It was on April
9, 1857, — that for us memorable occasion when the Society
formally installed itself in the freshly furnished Dowse Library.
In our printed volumes of Proceedings there is a record of
what was then done and said, and to-day that record has a
peculiar interest. This room is as nearly as possible an exact
reproduction of the original Dowse Library room in the old
Tremont Street building, looking out on the King's Chapel
graveyard, as this looks out on the Fenway. Furniture,
decoration, and contents are, in the main, the same as those
then enumerated by Mr. Winthrop, — "the precious volumes"
which Mr. Dowse "in his lifetime watched over so fondly," —
the " original sketch of Mr. Everett, by Stuart, and the fine
marble bust of Sir Walter Scott, by Chantrey, the chosen orna-
ments of the library" while in the Cambridge home of its col-
lector; the busts also of Milton and Shakespeare, of Franklin
and Washington ; while " the speaking portrait of the venerable
donor himself, procured for the purpose by the order and at the
expense of the Society, looks benignly down upon these cher-
ished friends of his youth and his age." And Mr. Winthrop
then went on to add, " from this apartment which they will
30
234 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
henceforth exclusively occupy," these volumes, portraits and
marbles, "are never in any contingency, which can be antici-
pated, to be removed." In point of fact, the " never " in this
case reduced itself to just forty years; for in 1897 wholly
changed conditions had asserted themselves, and the Society
sought a new home amid other surroundings. The Dowse
Library room was, however, in that new home carefully and
reverently reproduced. In it we are now gathered.
But while in all essentials the same, the memorials have in
number been slightly increased ; and increased in a way which
we can feel assured would, could he have foreseen it, have
been very gratifying to Mr. Dowse. As he looks down from
his place at the head of the room, the marble bust of Mr. Win-
throp stands at his left; while the portrait of Mr. Livermore —
the faithful executor of his will and the benefactor of this
Society — is a companion to the Everett. To-day, moreover,
the place on the right of the Dowse portrait is to be perma-
nently and fitly filled.
When, at the close of the business portion of the annual
meeting of 1857, held in the antechamber of the original
Dowse Library, the key of the still unopened room was for-
mally delivered by Mr. Livermore, as executor of the will of
Mr. Dowse, to Mr. Winthrop, as President of the Society, the
record tells us that the President " invited Honorable Josiah
Quincy and Honorable James Savage, the senior members of
the Society, to marshal the newly elected officers and the mem-
bers of the Society into the new room." Mr. Quincy had then
been a member of the Society over sixty years ; and Mr. Sav-
age, over forty-four years a member, had two years previously,
in April, 1855, ceased to be President, closing a service in that
office of fourteen years. That a memorial of him in marble,
corresponding to that of Mr. Winthrop, should occupy a posi-
tion of honor in the Dowse Library, has long been the desire
of the Society. That memorial the love and veneration of his
sole surviving child has now supplied. The effigy of James
Savage occupies henceforth its proper place in the room which,
forty-nine years ago, side by side with President Quincy, he
was first to enter.
At this point the bust, a very striking and artistic likeness
of Mr. Savage, was unveiled. After the applause had sub-
sided, the President resumed : —
1906.] ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. 235
Referring again to the period covered by the joint presiden-
cies of Mr. Savage and Mr. Winthrop, I have said that those
forty-four years constitute the golden age of our Society ; nor is
this statement an exaggeration. Historically speaking remark-
able, those years included the whole series of national adminis-
trations from John Tyler to Grover Cleveland. They saw the
rise and culmination of the anti-slavery movement; the crisis
of the Civil War ; the subsidence of the long reconstruction
agony. Through those years our Society pursued the tenor of
its way, — unbroken, if not always even. That they were for
us a fruitful season our publications witness. During its first
half century (1791-1841) the Society printed twenty-seven
volumes of Collections, — practically a volume, not large in
bulk, in each two years. The succeeding forty-four years
saw twenty-two volumes of Collections and a like number of
volumes of Proceedings added to the number, each volume
containing twice the matter of a volume of earlier publi-
cation. But it was in the brilliancy of those at this time
comprising its membership, their fruitfulness and quality that
the Society was most remarkable. During the earlier period
there is hardly a name upon the roll now remembered, save
by the curious, in connection with historical work. During
the Savage and Winthrop presidencies the record shines : —
Jared Sparks, George Bancroft, George Ticknor, William
Hickling Prescott, James Savage, John Gorhani Palfrey,
Richard Frothingham, John Lothrop Motley, Francis Park-
man, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Charles Deane, and Justin Winsor constitute
a veritable galaxy. I will not stop to enumerate the states-
men, publicists, divines, poets and essayists also there ; but
that it was a time of remarkable fecundity in historical litera-
ture as well as research those names furnish ample evidence.
Not least prominent among those mentioned, indeed among
those here best remembered, was James Savage. In his way,
and in his peculiar province he was foremost. His, more-
over, was the most striking individuality of them all. Upon
his somewhat uneventful life, and his long connection with this
Society, I do not now propose to dwell. Suffice it to say that,
born in Boston in 1784, in Boston he passed his life ; through
more than fourscore years he was of Boston ; and in Boston he
died. Chosen into the Society at the early age of twenty-nine,
236 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
he served in succession as its librarian, as its treasurer, and as
its president ; while his contributions to its Proceedings and its
Collections were so frequent that to specify them would con-
stitute in itself a bibliography. His membership extended over
sixty years, being to this day exceeded in length by that of
President Quincy only ; and now, when an entire generation
has passed away since his death, I think I may safely assert
that, with the single exception of Mr. Winthrop, no member of
the Society since its beginning lias left upon it so deep and in-
dividual an impression. Of those on our present roll, nine only
were members at the time of his death, and of these but three
can recall him in his activity. He is thus a tradition only.
Retiring from this chair in 1855, at the age of seventy-one,
through the ten following years he continued to be one of the
most constant in attendance at the Society's meetings. Punc-
tual and assiduous, both Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Hillard speak of
the quick, firm step, and eager, animated and joyous look with
which he was wont to enter the familiar room, his whole action
showing that he felt as much pleasure as he imparted.
Nothing if not individual, Mr. Savage as a presiding officer
must have been unique. Mr. Hillard says of him that when in
the chair, " whatever subject was started in the course of discus-
sion, it called forth from him a ready contribution of the most
accurate knowledge conveyed in language quaint and original,
and, from its point and raciness, commanding attention at the
time and easily remembered." Such a manner of presiding w T as
indubitably after a fashion Socratic ; and, as Mr. Hillard fur-
ther observes, would hardly have been fitting except in an
assembly of moderate size or interested in the same pursuits:
but we are assured, " hardly any meeting of the Society oc-
curred during his presidency without something falling from
his lips worthy of preservation, either from its substance or
form." And to the same effect Dr. Alexander Young,
himself a thorough antiquary and exact scholar, told Charles
Deane that " he always gathered up Mr. Savage's odd sayings of
wit and wisdom as they fell from his lips," and he everlastingly
"regretted that there was no Boswell to collect and preserve
these Savageana in a permanent form." His manner of pre-
siding was thus altogether peculiar to Mr. Savage, and charac-
teristic of the man ; but in him " it was so natural, so true an
expression of the better part of his nature, that no one was
1906.] ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. 237
ever disposed to criticise it or to wish it other than it was." In
short, he regarded the president's chair as a large oppor-
tunity to discourse upon subjects of which his mind was full ;
but, on the other haud, his conversation was so spontaneous
and unstudied that the Society was always glad to listen
to him.
As a writer and historical investigator, we have the high
authority of Charles Deane — and there can be none higher, —
for resting assured that Mr. Savage will be remembered as the
New England antiquary par excellence, —past master of the
guild. To the antiquary it belongs to gather up the small
facts of history, the fragments of truth, to be a gleaner in the
by-ways of the past ; and, for all this, Mr. Savage had a
peculiar faculty. With a persistency and enthusiasm not to
be surpassed he would pursue his inquiry into the smallest in-
cidents of history ; but to him they were not small, for they
had their place and their relations. Not infrequently this
mental habit would bring Mr. Savage into collision with some
other person of equally individual attributes, perhaps dis-
similar. The consequences were at times disastrous ; at times
not without an element of humor. Of the latter, I find an in-
stance in the diary of J. Q. Adams. Mr. Savage was strong on
the subject of the revised calendar, the " Old and New Style."
He made an elaborate study of it ; and, as a natural conse-
quence, was continually unsettling the dates of our New Eng-
land anniversaries. In 1843 Mr. Adams undertook to deliver
an address before this Society on the second centennial of the
New England Confederacy ; and as the anniversary drew near
a correct date for its observance naturally had to be assigned.
Mr. Savage went to see Mr. Adams on the subject. What
follows Mr. Adams characteristically recorded : — u Mr. Savage
called, and I had a long conversation with him ; chiefly upon
questions fit only to make a learned body ludicrous, — that is
on the day of the ceremony. ... I told Mr. Savage that as
the nineteenth of May of Old Style of the present year is the
thirty-first of the New Style, I thought they should take the
thirty-first for the celebration. But he and Judge Davis had
settled the point between themselves on principle. He argued
it with me, astronomically and politically, with such lucid illus-
tration that I lost the thread of his syllogism, and finally did
not understand him at all." So the anniversary was observed
238 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
on the twenty-ninth, and not on the thirty-first. Having thus
upset one accepted historical tradition in 1843, six years later, in
1849, Mr. Savage upset still another of the same sort, remand-
ing Fore-Fathers' Day from the twenty-second of December
to the twenty-first.
The two literary monuments left by Mr. Savage, the great
ear-marks by which he will be remembered, are the Genealogi-
cal Dictionary and the notes to his 1853 edition of Winthrop's
Journal. These will endure ; not, indeed, as contributions to
literature, either amusing or instructive, for that they assuredly
are not, but as memorials of iron industry, learning, and faith-
fulness to purpose. As Mr. Hillard very frankly admits the
Genealogical Dictionary possesses " no element of general inter-
est." To a reader in search of amusement, " it is the driest of
dry bones, duller than the muster roll of an army," or Homer's
catalogue of the ships ; but even in the arid waste of those
cumbrous volumes, Mr. Savage's peculiarities of mind and
temperament from time to time crop out refreshingly. This
is especially the case when careless inaccuracies of former
chroniclers are exposed, or, with great freshness of speech,
hatred of intolerance and bigotry is expressed. As to the
notes to Winthrop's Journal, Dr = Young once told Charles
Deane that he was accustomed to read them over and over
again apart from the text. The information he there gleaned
expressed in the quaint and inverted style of the man gave
him keen enjoyment ; and, in like manner, Mr. Hillard says
of those notes that they " form a mine of curious and accurate
learning, shrewd remark and quaint illustration, conveyed in a
style tinged with a certain grave pleasantry very characteristic
of the writer. Indeed they make by themselves a collection
which may be read with pleasure and profit." But the value
of the notes to Winthrop's Journal lies quite as much in their
individuality of thought and expression as in their learning ;
and while in future editions of the Journal, they will unques-
tionably in greatest part disappear, — for, like his manner of
presiding, Mr. Savage's editorial utterances " would not serve
as a model for imitation," — yet it is safe to predict that no
matter how many future editions of Winthrop, more scientific
or even more scholarly, may be forthcoming, copies of Savage's
edition of 1853 will always be eagerly sought and command a
high price. As a curiosity of literature it will endure.
1906.] ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. 239
But in this respect Mr. Savage understood himself and ac-
cepted his own limitations. He made no claim to literary
distinction. At times, he wrote, " letters have engaged my at-
tention ; but most of what I have written may as well
be permitted to pass by uninterrupted course to oblivion.
Strangers could hardly express esteem for fugitive papers,
when no fondness toward them is felt by the author."
Referring to some letters written by Mr. Savage in his
younger days Mr. Hillard observes that, " the influence of Dr.
Johnson was at that time (1800-1806) all pervading, and evi-
dence of it appears in this correspondence." But the same
influence is apparent all through the writings of Mr. Savage,
— it comes like a distinct echo of Rasselas. Take, for instance,
the following, from the preface to the fourth, and final, volume
of the " Dictionary," — is it Savage or Johnson who speaks ? —
" The task that near twenty years since was assumed by me is
now ended ; and no regret is felt for the time devoted to it.
Pleasure and duty have been equally combined. . . . By the
majority who, in careless hours may turn over these columns,
the scrupulous diligence of the printer will justly be more ob-
served than the research of the author, who should feel suffi-
ciently rewarded, if his countrymen acknowledge they have
no further claim to use of his pen after the owner's reaching so
near the age of four-score. Still, my rejoicing should be rather
that my service is finished, than that I have no more to do."
The fact is that Mr. Savage was throughout distinctly
Johnsonesque. In him it was not a case of either influence or
imitation ; he partook of the nature of the great English lexi-
cographer. The similarity cropped out in unexpected ways.
For instance, we are all familiar with Dr. Johnson's preference
of Fleet Street and Charing Cross to the loveliest rural view
in existence. So, Mr. Hillard tells us, James Savage " de-
lighted like Charles Lamb ' in the sweet security of streets.'
He had no rural tastes which were not satisfied by the Boston
Common and Boston suburbs. He had no longings for either
the mountains or the sea." Old Temple Place, before it was
cut through as a thoroughfare to Washington Street, was to
him what Bolt Court was to his English prototype. Not till
he was over sixty-two was a taste for the country developed
in him. But then, it is pleasant to know that the summer
home, set on a hill in Lunenburg, opened to him a new and
240 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
undreamed of existence. Commanding a rich and boundless
New England landscape, the shows of earth and sky, Mr.
Hillard assures us, there fell upon his spirit like a benedic-
tion.
Personally I do not remember ever to have seen Mr.
Savage. . He ceased to be president of the Society in 1855,
the year before I graduated from Harvard, and his attend-
ance at its meetings fell away ten years later during that Civil
War period when I was absent from Boston. I never, there-
fore, to my knowledge, laid eyes upon him ; but, later, anec-
dotes of him in his connection with the Society came to me
from Mr. Winthrop, from Dr. Ellis, and, most of all, from
Charles Deane. The impression left on those, his associates,
by him was that of a man of great mark of the peculiar New
England type. With high standards, moral and intellectual,
robust in body as in mind, he had a hot temper, great courage,
a strong will, and an incisive utterance. While a fast and true
friend, he was also, according to Charles Deane, what Dr.
Johnson called, u a good hater." His dislikes were as intense
as his likes ; nor was he chary in the expression of either.
Thackeray, with his inborn instinct for character, singled him
out at one meeting, and long afterwards referred to him as
" that quaint, charming old Mr. Savage"; and in his occasional
scintillations, coruscations and explosions, Mr. Winthrop
found in him quite a resemblance to Walter Savage Landor,
as the middle name indicates, remotely akin. Thus, taken alto-
gether, Mr. Savage was one of the most attractive as well as
one of the most noticeable Boston characters of his day ; while
the profound personal respect inspired by his earnestness, his
individuality, and his sincere, lofty character combined with
his kindly, companionable disposition, greatly enhanced both
generally and among those brought in closer contact with him,
the weight of those opinions to which he was wont to give
such outspoken, and even explosive, utterance.
I have referred to him as a " good hater" in the Johnsonese
sense of the phrase ; and the objects of his special dislike and
contempt were many, from Cotton Mather and John Hancock
to those then living. So far indeed did he carry his feelings,
or his feelings carry him, that his antipathies became, among his
contemporaries and associates, matter of kindly jest ; but, none
the less, his sturdy ebullitions, irrespective of place, and not
1906.] ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. 241
unaccompanied with expletives, constituted one of the charms
of his character. Indeed, when occasion called, he followed
explicitly Hotspur's advice, and left
..." in ' sooth/
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet-guards, and Sunday-citizens,"
while he gave vent to " a good mouth-filling oath."
Many anecdotes bearing on this characteristic lingered about
the original Dowse Library. Charles Deane, for instance, was
wont to tell, how once, at a late hour in the evening, he was re-
turning from some entertainment in company with Mr. Savage,
when the latter suddenly stopped before the old John Hancock
house, then still overlooking Beacon Street, and, with mina-
tory gestures expressive of hatred and contempt, proceeded to
wake the echoes of night by objurgating the former owner of
the mansion through forms of speech quite unconventionally
profane.
There is another equally characteristic anecdote of Mr.
Savage, and immediately connected with this Society, recorded
by our associate, the late Octavius B. Frothingham in his vol-
ume entitled Boston Unitarianism. He had it from my pre-
decessor in this chair, the late Dr. Ellis, who was a witness
to the scene: — "It was one of the darkest episodes of the
Civil War. Defeat had followed defeat. The credit of the
government was sinking. Conflict with England seemed im-
minent. An informal conversation on the situation went round
the circle ; Mr. R. joined in and criticised the proceedings at
Washington, uttering sentiments that jarred on the ears of
loyalists. One of the members [Mr. Savage], an old man [he
was then in his eightieth year], influential and honored, who
had lost a son in battle, bore it as long as he could, chafing and
fretting in his chair; but at length, unable to sit any longer,
got up and faced the offender, shook his clenched fist at him,
and ejaculated, ' Then ' [in the event of Northern overthrow
and bankruptcy] ' we will all go to hell together ! ' "
In this incident there was an element of pathos ; but another,
in which Rufus Choate figured, was wholly humorous. It
comes to us on the authority of Mr. Hillard, and occurred at a
preliminary hearing in certain legal proceedings involving the
use for secular purposes of the old Charming meeting-house
242 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April,
site in Federal Street, the edifice in which Mr. Savage officiated
as deacon until it was taken down, as he afterwards did in the
new building in Arlington Street, until old age incapacitated
him from longer passing the contribution plate. Mr. Choate
was of counsel ; Mr. Savage had been called to give evidence.
His examination concluded, Mr. Choate, representing the other
side, was asked if he wished to cross-examine the witness. Mr.
Choate, it will be remembered, was also a member of this So-
ciety. As counsel, he suavely replied that he had no questions
to put to Mr. Savage ; and then, as member of the Historical
Society, he added in a stage whisper to the associate counsel,
— " Now I have him under oath I have a mind to ask him why
he hates Cotton Mather so ! "
But in the excellent — and excellent because most sym-
pathetic — Memoir prepared for this Society, his old friend
and associate, George S. Hillard, tells us why Mr. Savage so
disliked and denounced both Cotton Mather and John Han-
cock ; also the Reverend Thomas Welde, the Reverend John
Wilson, the Honorable Richard Bellingham, and other early
Puritan worthies. Mr. Savage was no less remarkable for his
love of strict accuracy than for his love of truth. This quality
in him hardly stopped short of fanaticism. Cotton Mather he
thought a sham ; he regarded him as weak and credulous, and
worse ; and his historical statements we're not to be trusted.
Hating him, as Charles Deane expresses it, " with a deadly
hatred," he positively resented the old divine's habit of care-
lessness and inaccuracy, as evidenced in rashness of historical
statement, roundly declaring that " he seldom touched any
thing that he did not confound." As to the witchcraft craze,
and Mather's participation in it, its trials and its executions,
Mr. Savage reprobated it not as an unhappy delusion but as
a moral delinquency. He emphasizes the fact that Mather
was present at the hanging of the Rev. George Burroughs, en-
deavoring from his place on horseback " to convince the people
that no wrong had been done " ; but when, a month later,
Giles Cory was pressed to death for standing mute under in-
dictment, while admitting Mather's absence at " this triumph
over the devil," Mr. Savage charitably adds " had the sheriff
invited his aid, perhaps he would have declined the advantage."
He finally dismisses his historical bete noire with pointed allusion
to his " pious malignity," his " studied looseness of language,"
1906.] ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. 243
" the darkness of [his] ingratitude, and the equally loathsome
and ludicrous cowardice of [his] calumny."
As to Governor Bellingham, that worthy together with two
others traditionally classed among the venerated fathers of
Massachusetts, is thus disposed of in one sweeping condemna-
tion : — "It is gratifying to me to remark that the unbroken
reign of dismal bigotry from 1649 to 1672 inclusive under
Dudley, Endicot and Bellingham, — hard, harder, hardest, —
between the mild wisdom of Winthrop and the tolerant
dignity of Leverett, came to its end with the last of the
triumvirs."
Yet with all the intensity of his feeling there was in Mr.
Savage a conspicuous absence of any element of malignity.
He was wholly honest and above-board in his denunciations ;
quite free from what he himself most happily described as
" the exquisite rancor of theological hate." But, in his eyes,
the writer guilty of carelessness or falsehood, when he had
the means of getting at the truth, was little better than a pick-
pocket. This habit of thought and expression was again
most amusingly illustrated in the treatment of the Reverend
Thomas Welde. Mr. Savage actually pilloried the unfor-
tunate, even if unamiable, divine, and that, too, through a
study of typography and an interpretation of bibliographic
facts which on subsequent investigation proved to be wholly
mistaken. One after the other, Thornton, Drake, Palfrey and
Felt discredited the conclusions of the " learned editor of
Winthrop," and, finally, his personal friend and genuine ad-
mirer, Charles Deane, corresponded with Mr. Savage, endeav-
oring to convince him of his error, — clearly pointing out that,
if any culprit there was, Governor Winthrop was he, and it
was not Thomas Welde but John Winthrop, the " learned
editor " was in fact, vilifying and belaboring. The well-meant
effort was merely so much oil poured on the fire of the anti-
quarian's wrath. John Winthrop he reverenced ; Thomas
Welde he despised. So John Winthrop's manifest writing he
continued to attribute to Thomas Welde; who, because of it,
became a " virulent pamphleteer," and an " over-cunning wri-
ter," who had recourse to a "sneaking device," and an "ex-
traordinary instance of bibliographical disingenuity " to serve
as "a shield of his own cowardice," thus affording him (Mr.
Savage) the " gratification " of " disclosing the shameless
244 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 1906.
infirmity or petty malice of the ecclesiastical historian." To
an elaborate exposition of which no less than twelve printed
pages of the Genealogical Dictionary are devoted.
As to John Hancock, in Mr. Savage's eyes all the short-
comings and the excesses, the fallacies, misrepresentations
and falsehoods of the opposition to Washington were in him
personified. Thus, as Mr. Hillard says, it was not in Mr.
Savage to believe coldly or tamely. All of his opinions partook
of the warmth and the vehemence of his temperament. His
mind had no neutral tints ; whatever he believed, he believed
with a sort of hate and passion. His energy of feeling was
consequently not proportioned to the importance of the sub-
ject ; nor did it make any difference whether the offender was
then and there present in person, or had been for centuries
sleeping in his grave.
But, like his great London prototype of the previous cen-
tury, Mr. Savage was above all a distinct, well-defined indi-
viduality. As Charles Deane impressively said, standing as
it were by his freshly closed grave : " It is absolutely refresh-
ing in a community like ours, where few dare to have an
opinion before they know what the public think, to see a man
form his own independent judgment and stand by it. There
is a great invisible tyrant stalking about the community we
call 'public opinion,' which everybody fears and nobody
dares encounter, which lays down its inexorable laws and puts
its ban on all who resist them. ... A man who forms his judg-
ment in the clear white light of truth, irrespective of lower
considerations, which unfortunately bias most minds, stands
out before his fellows as a marked man, and by way of con-
trast challenges respect. He is a tower of strength to the
weak and shuffling creatures who dare not call their souls
their own. Such a man was Mr. Savage."
After the adjournment those present, members and invited
guests, lunched together in the Ellis Hall by invitation of the
President.
1906. J PROPOSED CHANGES IN THE OLD STATE HOUSE. 245
MAY MEETING, 1906.
The stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 10th instant,
at three o'clock, p. M. ; the President in the chair. The rec-
ord of the Annual Meeting was read and approved ; and
the Librarian and Cabinet-Keeper submitted their monthly
reports. The Librarian said that the Cabinet which he was
authorized to procure for the safe keeping of the Sibley Papers
had been completed in a satisfactory manner and put in place
since the last meeting.
The Treasurer said that under the provisions of Mr. Sears's
Declaration of Trust it would be necessary for the Society to
pass a vote with reference to the income of the Massachusetts
Historical Trust Fund ; and on his motion, it was
Voted, That the income of the Massachusetts Historical Trust
Fund for the last financial year be retained in the Treasury, to
be applied to such purposes as the Council may direct.
Messrs. Edward Stan wood, Alexander McKenzie,and Charles
C. Smith were appointed a Committee to publish the Proceed-
ings for the current year.
Messrs. Thornton K. Lothrop, S. Lothrop Thorndike, and
Charles C. Smith were appointed a House Committee.
The President announced the death of two Corresponding
Members, Richard Garnett, LL.D., who died in London, April
13, and M. Gustave Vapereau, who died in Paris April 18.
Mr. Brooks Adams called attention to the proposed changes
in the western end of the Old State House in connection with
the Washington Street subway now in process of construction,
and to the desirability of an expression of opinion by the
Society as to its preservation, with the least possible injury to
any part of the building, as an historical monument of great
interest. After a brief discussion in which the President,
and Messrs. Andrew McFarland Davis, James F. Hunne-
well, and Thomas W. Higginson took part, Messrs. Samuel
246 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
A. Green, Brooks Adams, and Edwin D. Mead were appointed
a Committee to represent the Society in the matter.
Hon. Samuel A. Green, a delegate from the Society to
the recent commemoration at Philadelphia, submitted the
following report : —
Since the last meeting I have attended as a delegate from
this Society the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Adver-
sary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, which was held in
Philadelphia on April 17, 18, 19, and 20, under the auspices
of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin,
and the oldest scientific body in the country. The exer-
cises continued for four days, were highly instructive to the
visiting delegates and others, and were fraught with great
interest. When preliminary arrangements were made, the
exact date of his birth (January 17) was not included in the
period of commemoration, owing to the possible inclemency of
the weather at midwinter, but the time selected included the
anniversary week of his death. As it happened, the con-
ditions could not have been more favorable or propitious than
they were. Delegates were present from the four quarters
of the globe ; and during the celebration messages of con-
gratulation were received by cable from various scientific
associations in foreign countries.
The exercises of the first day (Tuesday) began in the even-
ing, when an historical address was made by the President of
the Philosophical Society, Professor Smith ; and a reception
was given to delegates who represented scientific societies
and institutions of learning throughout the civilized world.
The exercises of the second day (Wednesday) were held at
different sessions in the Hall of the Society, in Independence
Square, and consisted of the reading of papers on various
subjects of science. At this meeting the news of the earth-
quake at San Francisco was announced, with its awful accom-
paniments, and created the deepest sensation. In the evening
there were addresses elsewhere.
Among the exercises of the third day (Thursday) were
ceremonies at the grave of Franklin ; and on the last day
addresses were made on Franklin as Citizen and Philanthro-
pist, by Horace Howard Furness (H. C. 1854) ; as Printer and
Philosopher, by Charles William Eliot (H. C. 1853) ; and as
1906.] THE EMANCIPATION CONCERT IN MUSIC HALL. 247
Statesman and Diplomatist, by Joseph Hodges Choate (H. C.
1852). These three addresses were the only ones on the
career of the great philosopher ; and I could not help but
notice that they all were by men of Massachusetts origin, like
Franklin himself, and that they all for several years were
students in Harvard College at the same time.
I ought to add that a grand banquet took place in the even-
ing at the end of the celebration, and that the delicacies of the
bill of fare were among the least attractive features of the
entertainment, where toasts and speeches held sway.
In this brief report I have noted by no means all the impor-
tant incidents that happened during the four days of festivity,
but only those that left an impression on my mind, The pro-
ceedings of the affair, from beginning to end, were well
worthy of the subject, and were conducted in excellent taste ;
and everything passed off successfully.
Mr. Henry G. Pearson, having been called on, read the
following paper: —
The Emancipation Concert in Music Hall on January First, 1863.
Many as were the forms of rejoicing in the North on Janu-
ary 1, 1863, over the accomplishment of negro emancipation,
the means of commemorating the day in Boston had the note
of distinction that is proper to the city. Nowhere else in
America could musicians have been brought together to ren-
der, and an audience been assembled to enjoy, a concert of such
high musical excellence as that then given in Music Hall. Its
character as a festival of rejoicing was intensely local, Bosto-
nian to the last degree ; but it was more than that. Provincial-
ism which stands for the exclusive cultivation of excellence is
the truest cosmopolitanism. So this concert, celebrating an
eternal principle of humanity in the eternal language of art,
is not a mere instance but a type ; is lifted from the region of
the particular into the realm of the universal.
The special cultivation of music in Boston fifty or sixty
years ago has left many records. The old Music Hall still
stands, the bronze statue of Beethoven which looked down
upon the audience from the platform has found a place in the
new building of the. Conservatory of Music, the great organ is
something more than a mere memory. Part of the record is
248 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
in the names of men, — Otto Dresel, Carl Zerrahn. Thanks
to such influences it became the accepted doctrine in Boston
that music, above all, the music of Beethoven, is one of the
great realities of the soul. Traces of this belief have de-
scended to us and have been kept alive among us by the con-
viction of mind and heart which has maintained the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, which has used it to celebrate a stately
birthday, to commemorate a noble life, as in the memorial
concerts given from time to time, and which has caused to be
set above the orchestra in its new house of sounds the one
word, Beethoven. Of course the cult was not widespread, —
or, rather, fashion took it up and then dropped it, — but the
devotion to it of those who stood for whatever was best as-
sured it a high place in local esteem.
A plan, therefore, to hail the day of emancipation by a con-
cert in which orchestra, chorus, and soloists should interpret
joy and freedom by means of music could bring its own recom-
mendation to those whose support was necessary to make the
realization successful. To the typical Bostonian — I avoid
using Dr. Holmes's word — it was altogether right and proper
so to do. The plan originated in the ingenious mind of James
M. Barnard, the philanthropist. Inspired with the thought
when he first read Lincoln's preliminary proclamation in Sep-
tember, he had opened the subject to John S. Dwight, whose
enthusiasm and knowledge of musical ways and means deter-
mined the form of the concert. An honorary committee of
arrangements was brought together, among its members being
Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Dr. Holmes, Edward Everett
Hale,' James T. Fields, and F. H. Underwood. Mr. B. J.
Lang undertook the work of drilling the chorus, Carl Zerrahn
was to conduct the band of musicians which gave orchestral
concerts in Boston, Otto Dresel promised to write music for
Dr. Holmes's " Army Hymn," and to play the solo part in a
Beethoven pianoforte concerto.
In the selection of the numbers for the programme Dwight's
sure instinct and exacting taste were seen. " Patriotic con-
certs," so called, with their lusty strains, were familiar
throughout the North ; but this was not a time for " war
songs" and "national airs." "The 'Hail Columbias ' and
' John Browns,' " wrote Dwight, u are all well enough in their
way and in their proper places ; but they have no right in an
— ■
1906.] THE EMANCIPATION CONCERT IN MUSIC HALL. 249
artistic programme, any more than cabbages and turnips in a
bouquet of flowers. They will be all in all, or nothing ; so
will art." Accordingly, the programme was thoroughgoing.
" Every piece in it," lie explained, " is good music, in the
highest sense of Art; yet every piece was sure (as it then
proved) to interest an earnest miscellaneous audience, how-
ever large, and make its poetic adaptation to the occasion
felt." Besides three great orchestral works of Beethoven —
an overture, a concerto, and the Fifth Symphony — there were
a long selection from Mendelssohn's " Hymn of Praise," a chorus
from " Elijah," the " Hallelujah Chorus" from the " Messiah,"
the number by Dresel, and the overture to " William Tell." In
point of length the concert-goer of to-day would be somewhat
appalled by such a programme ; in the matter of quality there
is nothing that he would not take quite as a matter of course.
The practical arrangements for the concert presented not a
few points of difficulty. When the plan was at last under
way, the time was short, and the engagements of musicians
were many. The orchestra, in particular, was to play on
New Year's eve at a ball in Springfield. To the credit of
the town there was more than one choral society ; by the
same token there was jealousy. Accordingly, the members of
the chorus had to be obtained by personal invitation and per-
suasion, and the body formed was not homogeneous, wonted to
itself. Worst of all, the most difficult piece on the programme
had to be risked without a rehearsal of orchestra and chorus
together. In spite of zeal on the part of leaders and rank and
file, it was felt by everybody that if haply the concert should
succeed it would be by faith and enthusiasm only, by the pure
inspiration of the hour.
New Year's eve was a night of wild storm, but the fear that
the orchestra might be blocked on the road to Boston vanished
when day brought clear sunshine and a brilliant sky. Of a
large audience there had never been any doubt, and the num-
bers who thronged to Music Hall early in the afternoon were
a curious mingling of diverse elements in the life of the town,
— abolitionists and musical amateurs, radicals and conserva-
tives, — all brought together by the joint appeal of art and
liberty.
Gladly as they came, however, and eagerly as they waited
the revelation of the music, their rejoicing for the negro and
32
250 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
his freedom was as yet only the rejoicing of hope. It was
three o'clock on the afternoon of the first of January, but the
President's proclamation of Emancipation had not been issued.
In those days journalism when it had nothing to say practised
the reserve of brevity rather than used verbiage, and the
morning papers had contained nothing more than a two-line
announcement that the proclamation would not be ready till
the next day. Historically speaking, this delay of a few hours
is insignificant ; emotionally, with that tense audience, it
counted for much. They were met together to celebrate not
the promise, but the deed. The deed was still wanting, and
doubt and depression could have their way unhampered. To
a city whose aristocratic instincts had been gratified by leaders
like Daniel Webster and later Charles Sumner, — ■ both men of
magniloquent protestations, — the homely democratic fashion
of Lincoln — "-pegging away," in his own expressive phrase
— seemed the outward sign of a mere hand-to-mouth politician.
Such a man the people of Boston had not yet learned to trust.
Here again, historically speaking, the doubt of the President's
pledged word is absurd ; emotionally, its effect could not be
disregarded. " As I walked about this morning," wrote one
sensitive lady in Boston, from whose record of the celebration
1 shall quote frequently, " I listened every moment to hear the
newsboys cry the Proclamation ; and as hour after hour passed
and nothing came, the feeling of disappointment was very
keen."
This audience, swayed by the blended sensations of expect-
ancy, doubt, and joy, now heard the rap of the conductor's
baton for attention. Announcement was made that Ralph
Waldo Emerson would read by way of prologue a poem in-
spired by the day. More than once had D wight urged upon
Emerson the committee's request, but so uncertain had the
poet been of his power to meet this supreme exigency that he
had refused to allow his name to be put upon the programme.
Inspiration, it seemed, was denied him; as he wrote to
Dwight, the poem was impossible without a good night's sleep,
which lately he had sought in vain. But at the eleventh
hour the boon was granted, and he came to the hall fresh from
the presence of his muse. " He was perfectly calm till he
came forward," says the writer of the journal which I have
already quoted, " and then his awkward, ungainly form trem-
1906.] THE EMANCIPATION CONCERT IN MUSIC HALL. 251
bled from head to foot with irrepressible excitement, and his
eyes flashed with the true fervor of a poet. His poem was
written upon different scraps of blue and white paper, and he
kept them in place by placing a book over the edge of them
on a music stand ; but whenever he took them to turn one
over, his hands could scarcely hold the sheet, and at all other
times he kept them tightly clenched by his side, or moved
them in nervous, strangely animated gestures. He seemed
like the Pythian priestess, animated with the sacred fire."
Indeed, the solemnity of an oracular utterance must have
thrilled in the words : —
And again :
God said, I am tired of kings,
I suffer them no more."
" To-day unbind the captive,
So only are ye unbound ;
Lift up a people from the dust,
Trump of their rescue, sound !
" Pay ransom to the owner
And fill his bag to the brim.
Who is the owner ? The slave is the owner,
And ever was. Pay him."
The music began. The overture to " Egmont," with its mar-
tial suggestions from trumpet, drum, and fife, was adequate for
its place. Then came the number on which was staked every-
thing. In Mendelssohn's " Hymn of Praise " occurs a dramatic
setting of the passage from Isaiah beginning, " Watchman,
what of the night ? " First a tenor voice sings a set aria to
the words: "The sorrows of death had closed all around me,
and hell's dark terrors had got hold upon me, with trouble
and deep heaviness. But said the Lord, Come, arise from the
dead, and awake thou that sleepest, I bring thee salvation."
Then follows a recitative, the voice flinging out its phrases
above the tense tremolo of the strings. " Watchman, will the
night soon pass ? The watchman only said : Though the
morning will come, the night will come also. Ask ye, inquire
ye, ask if ye will, inquire ye, return again, ask: Watchman,
will the night soon pass?" Three times the cry to the watch-
man is uttered, each repetition rising in pitch and in intensity.
Between the calls the wood-wind utters anxious, penetrating
9A9
ZOZ MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
cries. At the end the voice stands out alone, and when the
last tone of the agonized inquiry ceases, there is silence.
Heart-beats tell the length of it, while the audience waits and
waits for the reply that must come : —
" Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence V "
At last a single soprano voice, unaccompanied, mounting on
the tones of the major chord, and dwelling on one high note,
brings the answer. " The night is departing, departing." The
full orchestra comes crashing in, and the chorus, taking up
the melody and the words, sings jubilantly, u The night is
departing, the day is approaching ; therefore let us cast off the
works of darkness, and let us gird on the armor of light. The
night is departing." Never could music be more precisely
adapted to the event. u That moment," is written in the
journal, " can never be forgotten; it contained all of feeling
that we are capable of; we understood the whole then."
Still another climax of emotion was in store for the audi-
ence. Let it be told in words written on that day. " As
soon as the intermission commenced, Mr. Underwood came to
the front of the platform and quietly said : 4 Ladies and gentle-
men, I am requested by the committee of arrangements to
inform you that the expected Proclamation of the President
has been issued and is now being transmitted over the wires
to New York.' The scene that followed can be remembered,
can be felt, but cannot be described. Indeed, in the midst of
the strong emotions that crowded thick and fast, what passed
before our eyes was scarcely seen and little noticed. Shouts,
cheers, waving of handkerchiefs were confusedly mingled to-
gether, almost deadened by the convulsive beating of my own
heart. I think but one such moment can come to mortal man.
After quiet had settled again over the excited throng, Mr. Quincy,
from a seat at the back of the house, read General Saxton's
proclamation to the freedmen of South Carolina, summoning
them to the headquarters of the First South Carolina Volun-
teers to hear the President's Proclamation read January 1.
This was greeted with three cheers for Abraham Lincoln."
Long as the concert was, with its choruses, its concerto, and
its mighty symphony, inspiration was granted to those gathered
there both to render and to listen ; upon floor and platform
the genius of music wrought its perfect spell. One of the
—
1906.] "RISE AND FALL OF THE MODEL REPUBLIC." 253
great issues of life stood revealed in terms of art ; in the cry
of violins, the throb of drums, the uplifted song of many voices,
was borne to the spirit of men the meaning of human freedom.
And above them all stood the form of Beethoven, in his hand
a scroll which bore the notes of the Choral Symphony, his own
message bidding mankind to rejoice.
The President presented a copy of Williams's " Rise and
Fall of the Model Republic," and said : —
Turning over, recently, certain literary material pertaining
to the Civil War, with a view to relieving my book-shelves, I
came across a volume, published in London in 1863, entitled
The Rise and Fall of the Model Republic. Its author was one
James Williams, a Southerner, and a man of some mark appar-
ently, as on the title-page he is described as "late American
Minister to Turkey." The book is dedicated to u The friends
of rational liberty and to the adversaries of despotic govern-
ment whether administered under the rule of a single tyrant
or of a multitude." I have tried to get some further infor-
mation about Williams, but with very unsatisfactory results.
He seems still to be vaguely recalled in Eastern Tennessee
as once " a flourishing man of considerable wealth," and
the proprietor of a warehouse at Knoxville. What was
known as an " old line Whig," he apparently joined forces
with the Democrats in the presidential canvass of 1856, and
rendered service on the stump and with his pen to the
Buchanan cause. He was known as " Captain " Williams,
and his appointment to Turkey, which he received from
Buchanan in 1858, and held until the early part of 1861, was
strongly recommended by Andrew Johnson among others.
He published during the war a second work, entitled The
South Vindicated, said to have been the first book copyrighted
by the Confederacy ; but I have not come across any copy of
it. One of the submerged in the Civil War deluge, he was
never " reconstructed," and though it is believed that he
visited the United States once or possibly twice after leaving
Turkey, he never again resided here. He died in Gratz,
Austria, about three years after the close of the war. His
book is merely part of the flotsam of the great cataclysm, in
which he seems to have been a minor actor, and of which he
was one of the innumerable victims, now forgotten.
254 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Before disposing as mere rubbish of the copy of Williams's
book, which somehow had come into my possession, I turned
over its pages to see if there might by chance be in it some-
thing of value. In doing so, I came across certain passages
so very characteristic of the time and the temper of dis-
cussion then prevailing, that they seemed to me worth pre-
serving in our Proceedings. Taken as a whole the volume
has no appreciable value ; but those particular passages ought,
I thought, to be embalmed as flies in amber, — as curiosities
of literature, if nothing more.
Moreover, it is always desirable to avail ourselves of any
opportunity to see ourselves through others' eyes. A good
view of this kind can hardly fail to be ralutary. In this
volume, for instance, I find a pen-and-ink portraiture of the
New England congregationalist minister. There have always
been a number greater or less of this highly respected class on
the rolls of our Society. We have some now. It therefore
affords me no inconsiderable satisfaction to hold this looking^
glass up before our associates, Dr. De Normandie and Dr.
Gordon, and ask them whether, in the image reflected, they
fail to see themselves : —
" Behold the descendant of the Puritan ! Two hundred years have
wrought many changes in the moral, political, and social world. Kings
have become plebeians, and plebeians kings. Empires have passed
away, and others have been created. Old systems have been super-
seded by new ones, and whether or not the world has grown better
and wiser its whole aspect has been altered. But the Puritan of the
type we are now considering has remained unchanged in the harsh
features of his nature, however much he may have been obliged to
yield to the force of public opinion in the outward manifestations of his
ruling passion. He is no more a regicide, because in the land where
his lot is cast there are no more kings to kill. He no longer drowns
or burns witches, for his ancestors exterminated them long ago. He
no longer buys and sells savages in order to ' bring them to a knowl-
ege of the true and living faith,' for the last Indian of all the tribes
which peopled the wilderness has perished before the unrelenting
despotism which was enforced against them by his forefathers. He no
longer hangs other Christians, nor inflicts upon them the more lenient
chastisement of stripes and banishment, for non-conformity to his pecu-
liar doctrines ; but he would exterminate the Southerners with fire and
sword, because they are not willing to submit to his dictation in the
management of their domestic affairs. He would enslave, or if need
1906.] "RISE AND FALL OF THE MODEL REPUBLIC." 255
be, slay twenty millions of freemen in order to confer upon four mil-
lions of Africans what he calls freedom ; but he would re-enslave these
again if they transgressed one jot or tittle of the moral law as
expounded by himself.
" He whom we are now considering is not only a parson — an 'ex-
pounder of God's word,' and a teacher of morals, but he is a politician.
He does not preach to-day in the pulpit against the sins denounced by
Christ and his apostles, and deliver a stump speech to-morrow upon the
party politics of the day ; but in either place and in all places he blends
the duties of the two together. His sermon is always a political
harangue interlarded with phrases originating in the rum-shop — his
political harangue a sermon abounding in scriptural quotations. He
may only be properly described by the appellation of ' political parson.'
" You search in vain over the lines of his strongly marked counte-
nance, and gaze into his cold calm eye, to find some trace of human
sympathy or of human weakness. His features are never relaxed into
a smile, except when he contemplates the consummation of some event
which would make others weep. He feels no sentiment of compassion
for the slave, but he hates the master with all the ferocity of his
nature. His brow grows darker when he is told that the African slave
is happy and contented with his lot ; but his soul is filled with a joy
unspeakable as he listens to the recital of the bloody deeds of a John
Brown ; and he straightway falls upon his knees and gives thanks to
God that ' he has vouchsafed to his servant this great boon.' You may
respect him for the strong points in his character ; but you would never
seek to be his boon companion. He may excite an emotion of fear, but
never a sentiment of love. Whether engaged in stealing slaves from
the coast of Africa, or assassinating the white men to whom he sold
them, for the sin of being slave-holders, he always professes to be
'doing his duty as a servant of the Lord.' When the work of the day
is finished he sings a psalm, reads a chapter in the Bible, says a
prayer, and retires to the enjoyment of tranquil slumbers."
Burns long ago exclaimed : —
" Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us ! "
and in this case, so far as the congregationalist divine is con-
cerned, the prayer has been answered. In the portrayal I
have quoted it is now given to Messrs. De Normandie and
Gordon to gaze on their own lineaments as seen by one
portion of their fellow countrymen only half a century back.
But, levity aside, I submit that the foregoing extract from
a volume written by a Confederate, and printed in London in
256 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
the year 1863, is a most suggestive and consequently valuable
scrap of evidence for the historian of the Civil War period, —
one well worthy of preservation. It throws a strong gleam of
light on the psychological conditions which prevailed anterior
to 1861, and led up to the crisis which then occurred. Some-
where in the correspondence of the late Dr. Francis Lieber
there is a remark I have seen quoted, I think by our associate
Mr. Rhodes, 1 that, during the period immediately antecedent to
the Civil War, the North and South reproduced the conditions
noticed by some classic Greek observer at the time of the
Peloponnesian War. The two parts of the common country
were unintelligible to each other, — they spoke different
languages. The extract I have given from Williams's book
affords a good illustration of the correctness of this remark.
Another illustration, on the other side, might be found in
fiction by turning the pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and in fact
in the John Brown raid. John Brown, it will be remembered,
was absolutely persuaded that the condition of slavery was so
cruel and so abhorrent to the black that it would only be
necessary to raise the standard of insurrection to cause all
Virginia to break into revolt. Three years later practical
experience convinced us that the presence of the Union
armies in the heart of the slave States led to no servile unrest.
As for Uncle Tom and Legree, they were just about as remote
from the general Southern standard of slave and slave-driver
as Mr. Williams's congregationalist minister is from those
of the type intimately known by us here. The one and
the other were equally caricatures. 2 Yet each side believed
implicitly in the correctness of its own characterization of
the other. Unless this fact is firmly grasped by the historian
through just such contemporary portrayals as that quoted from
the volume I now present to the Society, the true inwardness of
the situation which made inevitable our Civil War cannot be
understood.
Mr. James Ford Rhodes read a paper of considerable
length entitled " Negro-carpet-bag-rule in South Carolina,"
which was listened to with much interest, and elicited remarks
1 History of the United States, vol. ii. p. 189.
2 In John C. Reed's book The Brothers' War there is a very suggestive
chapter (pp. 161-207) on " Uncle Tom's Cabin," written from the standpoint of
an intelligent Southerner forty years after Emancipation.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 257
from Messrs. Thomas W. Higginson and Moorfield Storey.
As it was not the wish of the writer that this paper should be
printed in the Proceedings, and as it is the recognized intention
of the Society not to publish in its volumes discussions as to
matters of recent political controversy, no abstract of this paper
or of the discussion which followed its presentation is here
given.
Mr. Charles C. Smith communicated for Mr. Worthington
C. Ford, of Washington D. C, a Corresponding Member, a
large mass of letters written by William Duane, editor of the
Philadelphia Aurora, with an introductory note by Mr.
Ford : —
Of the newspapers devoted to the Jefferson or anti-
Federalist policy, the best known and perhaps the ablest
edited was the " Aurora," published in Philadelphia. Estab-
lished by Benjamin Franklin Bache, the grandson of Franklin,
its purpose was to criticise the acts and intentions of the
Federalists, of Washington and of John Adams, and to build
up a Republican party in Pennsylvania. Bache died of a
fever, and William Duane, an Irish-American, married the
widow and succeeded to the editorship and proprietorship of
the paper. As an editor he was much abler than Bache,
better trained in writing, more experienced in management of
men, and of more liberal political views. Bache criticised
men rather than measures, while to Duane the policy rather
than the man was the object of attack.
Little is known of his early career, though it has been
asserted that both in England and in India he had passed
through a martyrdom, suffering for his too outspoken opinions.
Public men were sensitive, but the large number of refugees
who sought to escape persecution from those high in power
by coming to the United States more than sufficed to supply
the journals with able, unscrupulous, and often scandalous
characters. Duane's exact offences in those two countries are
not known ; but he came to Philadelphia and found congenial
occupation on the " Aurora." His friendship, almost intimacy,
and his loyalty to Jefferson constitute his claims for recogni-
tion ; and the letters now printed prove this friendship, while
casting a somewhat curious light upon his disinterestedness,
upon the vicissitudes of journalism, and upon the views of
33
258 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
public office and its rewards entertained by himself and his
great patron. His ambition was great, and his thirst for public
employment insatiable. But his constant need for money
curbed his endeavors and limited his activity, exercising a
wholesome correction to a spirit that might have developed
into the blackguardism of Callender, Lyon, or Cheetham, while
obliging him to quarrel with his friends even more generally
than with his enemies. The " Aurora " had a large circulation
in its first years, but the actual advent of the Jefferson adminis-
tration raised competitors, and Duane had a hard struggle to
maintain himself by the newspaper. He sought aid again
and again from Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, of whose cause
he regarded himself the champion. Having suffered in the
" reign of terror," — the Republican name for the administra-
tion of John Adams, — and having been persecuted by the
Senate for his writings, he looked to his patrons for rewards
adequate to his own idea of the debt. His wish to obtain
government contracts for printing and stationery met with the.
approval even of Gallatin, who was personally above any
suspicion of wrong intent.
Albert Gallatin to Thomas Jefferson.
[December 15, 1801.]
Dear Sir, — The enclosed requires but little comment. Why M r
Beckley did not divide the printing between M r Duane and M r Smith
I do not know ; but I am sure that most of our friends are so cha-
grined at it, that they speak of altering the rules of the House, so as to
have the printer appointed by the House & not by the clerk. M r Smith
came here before the fate of the election was ascertained, and at a risk.
He was promised by myself and others every reasonable encouragement.
But this cannot be construed into an exclusive monopoly. He has
already the printing of the laws and of every department; and the
Congress business might have been divided.
I wish however that Mr. D's application for purchase of his
stationary might be communicated to the several heads of Department ;
and, if you think it proper, the letter being transmitted by you may be
better attended to. We may in the Treasury purchase a part, but
cannot pay until Congress shall have made an appropriation ; ours
being exhausted.
No letters which required immediate answer having been received
these three days, I have delayed acting on them, until I had got rid of
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 259
the report to Congress. This is the reason of your not receiving any
these two days.
With sincere respect & Affection, your obed f Serv*
Albert Gallatin.
In the expectation of obtaining these contracts Duane
opened a store in Washington, which was entirely unsuccessful
from every point of view and left him in debt. Harassed by
lawsuits and by finding increasing difficulty in obtaining the
necessary credit or in continuing the old credits, he turned to
other occupations, and the troubles with England pointed to a
military career as possible and even profitable. His Military
Library is but little known and is less esteemed. As a money-
making scheme it would not have succeeded had he not sold
an edition to the government, a sale based more upon favoritism
than upon the merits of the work. His career in the army
was of little credit to himself, and is told in brief in the
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams. 1 Poor, embarrassed, and by
his conduct deprived of friends, Duane sought many ways of
bettering his condition, but with little success.
As his financial troubles became worse, his temper became
more uncertain and irascible. No one appeared to trust him,
his friends fearing him quite as much as did his enemies, and
never knowing the day when he would turn upon them and
abuse them with the knowledge he had gained in their inter-
course. He criticised Madison and opposed Monroe ; he
fought Gallatin for reasons which had little foundation and
were peculiarly exasperating to Gallatin's friends. His course
in State politics was marked by a personal and intemperate
bias that made him feared and hated. He was on the losing
side, and the " Aurora " became less and less influential
and profitable, and ceased to be the organ of Republicanism.
Jefferson remained his friend, seeking opportunities to aid
him, and Duane remained loyal to Jefferson ; yet even Jefferson
recognized his errors. He wrote in 1811 : " I believe Duane
to be a very honest man, and sincerely republican; but his
passions are stronger than his prudence, and his personal as
well as general antipathies render him very intolerant." Thir-
teen years worked no change, and Duane transferred his pen
to the aid of the opponents of the Republicans. John Quincy
1 See vol. v. pp. 112, 117.
260 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Adams describes him as a man of talents, having much knowl-
edge crammed without order or method into his head, and
of indefatigable industry. But he was known to be in the
market for sale to the highest bidder, and these letters measure
the burden of debt as well as the burden of moral qualities
that invited hostility rather than friendship.
To .
Philadelphia, April 17, 1800
The cabinet here is in a very discordant condition. They hang to-
gether only like wretched mariners on detached planks ; if one lets go,
the whole go. You will be surprised to learn that an indictment has been
found against me for publishing the celebrated letters of Listo?i, seized
on Sweezey. The sheriff of Berks aud two others are included in the
indictment ; but, more strange still I they were sent to me, and published
by the express direction of Gov. Mifflin, after being opened by the
express authority of Robert Wharton, our good Mayor.
I am told that they have withdrawn the indictment found against
me, at Norristown, last fall, predicated on my assertion concerning
British influence, as declared by Mr. Adams. It seems they found out
that I had the actual letter of Mr. Adams in my possession.
Mr. Cooper, late of Manchester (you know him personally and well),
is to be tried on sedition on Saturday. He pleads his own cause. He
applied for a subpoena of the President yesterday. The court refused ;
and, as I have been told, the judge declared that the President could
not be affected by any legal proceedings, unless by an impeachment; so
that we have one man above the law. Chase presides, and Peters is
the puisne judge. I have not been out of town ; have lived mostly
in my own house ; and have been several times on the parade with the
legion. [Mr. Duane is a captain, we believe, in that corps.] I keep
retired only because there is no magistrate to be found, who has a
knowledge of his duty and his rights, or virtue or courage to act upon
the habeas corpus right. If there were, I should take care to be arrested
immediately. In the present circumstances, my only course is to defeat
their malice, and give a good example to others.
Yours,
William Duane.
To Thomas Jefferson. 1
Washington, March 1, 1801
Sir, — The papers accompanying were given me for communication
to you, they originated in the following manner. Prior to my setting
i Jeff. MSS.
1908.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 261
out for Lancaster in the month of October last, Mr. Lee, the person
whom they concern, called on me and stated that he had been dismissed
from his situation for discovering the removal of papers from the De-
partment of State by means of a false key, and wished me to publish
the facts. I objected to publish unless he would commit the matters
to writing and depose to them before a magistrate, which he offered to
do. Thereupon I wrote a note to Mr. Gardner, requesting him to at-
tend to the matter while I was absent, which he did, and the matters
stated in the accompanying papers were given in the presence of Mr.
Gardner and Mr. James Ker, of Philadelphia. I did not think the
facts so strongly stated as he at first represented them to me, and there-
fore did not publish them.
The receipt of a letter from Mr. Gardner induces me to lay the papers
now before you. The poor man appears to have been sacrificed for his
fidelity, and to be reduced to the extreme of wretchedness. Perhaps
in any arrangements that may be hereafter made, some situation of
equal value with what he held before might be found in the Custom
house or elsewhere.
I have no other knowledge of the man than what arises from the
occurrences in this case — and am impelled only by duty to present
the papers and state what I know on the subject, submitting the case
with deference to your consideration.
I am with respect, your obedt. Servt.
Reed. March 2. [Endorsement by Jefferson.]
To Jefferson}
Philadelphia, May 10, 1801
Sir,' — Mr. W. P. Gardner who will present this letter carries with
him a small box containing impressions of two medals, which I have
had by me some time past waiting for an opportunity safe and suitable.
Mr. Gardner is a man of great worth in every civil relation, and is one
of those who was compelled to quit the Treasury Department thro'
the injuries done him on account of his political opinions. He is no
ordinary man, and to his private virtues and political integrity I can
testify. He is a native of this city.
The medals of which you will receive copies were engraved by a
young man of the name of C. J. Reich, a native of Germany, but a re-
publican, and on that account obliged to fly his native country. It
appears that he engraved the medal of Italicus in secret, and from his
own account had an interview with the hero at Rastadt. It seems that
in order to come to the United States, he had indented himself, and is
now in this city, tho' not in absolute indigence or villainage, is yet
1 Jeff. MSS.
262 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
circumstanced so as to render his situation irksome to him, as must be
supposeable from the merits of his works, and his personal manners.
Hearing of his worth, and knowing what it is to be in a strange land
without a knowledge of its language, it recurred to me, that the cap of
liberty had been erased from our public coins, and other innovations
of a tendency correspondent with the views of certain weak men made
during the last administration ; and hearing on enquiry, that there were
public medals to be cut ; I thought it a duty in various respects to rescue
this man if possible from the unfitness of his condition, and to make his
merits known to you.
As a connoisseur I do not pretend to judge of the Medals, but as a
person conversant with analogous branches of the arts, they strike me
as of superior character. If on consideration the merits of the artist
should be such as to entitle him to your patronage, and there are any
services in his profession upon which he could be employed, it would
greatly serve the man, and afford me extreme delight to have been the
means of rescuing him from his present situation. I advised him to
draft a letter to you, which he did in German, of which a translation,
tho' very imperfectly done, I think proper to forward herewith. His.
application is confined to the knowledge of two others and myself.
Should there be any commands for him, I shall with great pleasure
receive and communicate them to him.
Permit me to mention, that I have found it necessary to enter into the
Stationary and Bookselling business, the hostility of the Custom House,
and the abuse in the Post Office, rendering all ideas of profit from my
newspaper hopeless. Should no engagements be made for the supply of
Stationary for the public offices, I shall be obliged by the contracts for
that service, which 1 trust I shall be able to execute as well and on as
reasonable terms as any other person.
If no arrangements have been made for obtaining the books to supply
the public Library, ordered by the late Congress, my acquaintance with
men of letters in England, and the most eminent Booksellers, would
enable me to procure them with more advantage than any other person
not similarly circumstanced could.
These favors I should be grateful for, and as they are professional,
I trust it will not be considered as presuming that I suggest them. In
the season of danger I laid aside personal consideration, in the return
of a milder season it is incumbent upon me to make provision for my
little progeny, and the little progeny of my predecessor, the descendants
of Franklin who have become mine, to which another has been just
added by the birth of a daughter.
I have not permitted myself to touch upon politics, because I am not to
suppose that you have not other channels by which you can obtain infor-
mation from hence ; and particularly as I am apprehensive of intruding
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 263
too much upon your leisure. If, however, it should be supposed that
the confidence which is reposed in me should enable me to give less
partial views of the state of parties and political interests and characters
in this state, than those who are the interested actors in them, I shall
be at all times ready to state faithfully and if necessary frequently such
information as may appear to me useful and authentic ; at present I
think it of the utmost importance that the true state of politics in Penn-
sylvania should be known, particularly as an election occurs in October,
and a governmental Election not far remote, for which movements are
already making.
I have the honor to be your sincere and respectful serv*
Tuesday noon. The trial on the Indictment at the instigation
of the Senate, postponed this instant to October, then to be tried
peremptorily ! ! !
Dr. Franklin's daughter, Mrs. Bache, is now at table, and requests
to be particularly remembered to you.
To James Madison.
Philadelphia, May 10, 1801
Sir, — Without any other title to the liberty I take, that [than]
what may be allowed me from the respect I have learned to entertain
for your virtues and talents, exerted in the cause of my country, and
which I have in a much humbler sphere endeavored to emulate, I now
take the liberty of addressing you, and even in this first instance to
solicit a favor.
The publication of " The Aurora " tho' more extensive in its circu-
lation than any other paper in the Union, is so much cramped in its
funds by the active hostility of the Custom House, that the only source
of profit to such a paper that of Advertising is too inadequate to render
it a pursuit eligible for any man who has a family to provide for in any
other than times where public security supercede the calls of personal
Interest. I believe I have not been backward in the season of danger.
In this halcyon period it is necessary that I should provide for the
little progeny of my own, and the little progeny of my predecessor, the
descendants of Franklin, who by marriage have fallen under my wing.
I have therefore sought to establish myself in a business analogous to
that with which habit and experience have made me familiar — I mean
the bookselling and Stationary business.
My present purpose is to solicit, should no engagements be already
made, that I may have the supply of the Department of State with
Stationary of every description.
Permit me also to suggest, that as provision has been made for fur-
nishing a library for the use of Congress, that I should be glad to
264 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
undertake the provision of such books as may be required, and as I
have had some experience, having resided in England for five years,
and am acquainted not only with the first booksellers but numbers of
the first literary characters in that Country, I could undertake the
importation of the Books for the public Library under advantages that
few others possess.
I have not hitherto asked any favor of the administration, tho'
honored by the confidence and good opinion of I believe the majority
of the People of America — and I seek no other favor than such as
may be given and received with honor and independence to the Admin-
istration and to me.
I took the liberty of addressing a letter to Mr. Lincoln a few days
ago, wherein I urged, that it would be rendering an useful service to
the public, and to the republican printers, if the latter were authorised
to publish the Laws of the Union upon these terms. That such papers
only should be authorised to print them, as it was intended should be
in future authorised; that if contracts had been made to the amount
authorised by law with other printers by the late administration,
then those who should now be authorised should not demand pay-
ment unless Congress should be willing to grant it ; this step would
contribute to the circulation of the laws themselves, and of the republi-
can newspapers, and it would counteract in a degree the artful stroke
of the late administration of pensioning papers in advance to oppose
the present administration. If it were necessary, I could furnish a
list of all the papers which have been so active and useful as to lay
claim to the attention of the administration.
If at any time any service might be required of me, or any political
information concerning this city or state, it would give me particular
satisfaction to furnish any service of which I am capable for the public
advantage.
I am, Sir, with Sincere respect and esteem
Your obedt Ser*
W M Duane, Editor of the Aurora,
To Jefferson. 1
Philadelphia, June 10, 1801
Sir, — I was honored by yours of the 23 May, which I should have
acknowledged before could I have found a person to whose care I
might entrust the delivery of a letter. Lieut. Mcllroy, late com-
mander of the Augusta, has informed me of his intention to proceed
this morning, and I embrace the opportunity of writing by him. Mr.
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 265
Mcllroy it appears incurred the enmity of captain Sever, by drinking
Mr. Jefferson's health in the West Indies and attributes his dismission
to that and the like political causes, which he considers as particularly
unfortunate at this time from the experience which he had as an officer
for six years in the Mediterranean on board a British ship of war, in
which he rose by merit, tho' originally impressed. I mention these
facts from a conviction of their truth, and my personal knowledge of
his uncommon merits as a seaman.
The death of F. A. Muhlenburg on the 4th inst. has produced a
change in the political prospects in this state. His conduct on the
British treaty lost him the confidence of all the independent republi-
cans • the opposite party had determined to run him for Governor, on
finding that the General would not be made their instrument ; which, I
believe, from his being the real agitator of the schism which took place
in the last session, of our legislature, he would have been willing to
become. There is no other character among the Germans of talents
and standing equal to the deceased ; his capacity as a German writer
was admired, and there does not appear to be any one equal to him
left. Some of the Germans talked of General Heister, but he is too
honest a man to submit to any measure that could produce a division.
The consolidation of the republican interest will therefore depend in
the first instance on the degree of countenance which the violent men
in office meet with, and on the precautions of the Governor in his
appointments. There are many disaffected to him, on account of some
few appointments already made, and as is usual without just grounds
of dissatisfaction. But I make no doubt, that upon the removal of men
who have been oppressors and persecutors here, the effect will be a
more firm and general adherence than even in the last general Election
to the principles by which alone security can be obtained. The con-
tinuation of Humphrys as naval constructor has given considerable
disquiet, the communications which I have had concerning him, his
abuses of trust and wrongs to individuals for opinion sake, would fill
several sheets. The remembrance of his son being appointed to France
for his assault on Ben. Franklin Bache is as strong as if it happened
but a month since. Ever since I have been confined, the repub-
licans and men too of the first credit and standing in the southern dis-
trict of this city have repeatedly applied to me for information. I have
stated as my opinion that nothing would be done hastily, but upon due
enquiry no man who had abused his trust to corrupt or persecuting
purposes would obtain the confidence of the administration. As they
are so kind as to repose considerable confidence in my opinions, I appre-
hend these assurances tend to quiet them in some measure, tho 5 there
are numbers discontented at the continuance in office of the three
principal officers of the Customs.
34
266 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
I communicated to Mr. Reich (the Medal Engraver) the intimation
to wait on Mr. Boudinot, which I suppose he has done.
What you are pleased to say with regard to the prosecutions exactly
agrees with my recollection. I do not precisely recollect what I said to
Mr. Gallatin, but when I wrote him I was under the impression, that
a course different from your wishes had been pursued. I understood
that the Sedition Law being unconstitutional, it would be treated as a
nullity ; but when I wrote, the prosecution was then coming on in
court under that law. I could account for this in no other way but by
supposing that Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Dallas had mistaken your senti-
ments, because the agitation of the question in court under that law
appeared to me, a recognition of its validity. I feared nothing from
the goodness of Mr. Lincoln's heart, but I apprehended lest he should
be apprel-3nsive of meeting the displeasure of his Eastern friends by
openly opposing that Law ; and that therefore his instructions to Mr.
Dallas were not so strong as were necessary, or so precise as the
spirit of your intentions demanded. It was peculiarly irksome to me
on many accounts. I was deprived of Mr. Dallas's legal aid, and Mr.
Cooper was engaged in the mission to Luzerne in this State, but
remained solely to defend me. Mr. Dickerson tho' possessing the
purest esteem and the best dispositions, yet from his youth could not
appear to advantage against Mr. Ingersol, a man who entertains the
most incurable hatred for me, and was the instigator of the attack
which has robbed me of my birthright for the present. I do not
recollect feeling any sentiment of dislike to a change of Judicature, and
I am sure no change could be worse, from a court where the clerk
contrives to pack the Juries out of men who were British soldiers
in arms against American Independence and Tories who have never
renounced their sworn allegiance to George III. of which a late Jury was
composed. Indeed after my efforts to obtain Evidence at Washington, of
which General Mason or his brother J. T. Mason can inform you, I
see no prospect of ever obtaining any evidence : and if it should ever
come on again, I must be obliged to submit it to the discretion of the
court ; tho* no man can doubt the truth of every tittle uttered in the
publication. Could the evidence be brought forward, I certainly was
willing to stand a fair trial, but the Court has decided that a commis-
sion is a matter of favor — that as I knew the Congress was to be
removed to Washington I ought to have considered that before I pub-
lished — and that I would have the benefit only of such evidence as
was within a given distance !
There have been so many of these prosecutions, that I was really
bewildered by the mass of evidence necessary to meet them. To have
gone to Court upon them all would have left me no time to transact
my ordinary business, and Mr. Dallas has so generously and zealously
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 267
undertaken my defence on all these cases, that I have avoided wherever
I could intruding upon him, leaving to the approach of term the
arrangements to be made. I had spoken to him, however, to obtain a
state of the causes, which he undertook to forward himself. At present
I have no opportunity of communication with him, but upon a deliber-
ate consideration of the situation in which I have stood, and now stand,
and the feelings of my family, I do not hesitate to solicit a nolle prosequi
upon that prosecution.
In absolute peril or in a great struggle for a great good, I believe I
should be one of the last to shrink from danger or contest. I am
neither shaken in my principles nor broken in spirit. But after the
turbulent contest which I have gone thro' with this most remorseless of
factions, and injured as I have been in the stigma put on me, contrary
to precedent, and under the refusal to accept a crowd of authentic docu-
ments as collateral evidence of my birth and attachment to my country,
I am shocked. I begin to feel the injury I have sustained, and to con-
sider that it has been done, because I was not base — but because I
have been formidable to oppressors. I look at my family and I see
united in it those who have been long the victims of Federal persecu-
tion along with my off-spring, combining the claims of eight years contest
and persecution : the descendants of Franklin and the beloved wife of the
amiable and good Bache, become my inheritance and my delightful care.
When I see all my countrymen at peace, and republicanism diffus-
ing concord and harmony, under the reign of liberty and moderation,
I cannot but think it hard that I alone should still remain the victim.
If I stood alone, had I no concerns but those which are personal, I
should scorn to look behind ; but when at this moment a combination
is entered into to prevent the purchase of books or stationary at a
store which I have opened upon a credit — - when the Collector of the
Customs, seeks to deter Auctioneers and Merchants from advertising
in my paper — and when all the profits arising from that paper, do not
enable me to disencumber myself from the debts with which it was
incumbered during the unexampled struggles and sacrifices of my pre-
decessor, I think I should be insensible to my family interests, if I
were not to solicit such protection as may be fairly and justly held out
to me, considering that all the hostility towards me arises from the
very efforts against those who seek to overwhelm me.
I had determined before the election, that upon the success of the
people's choice, I should dispose of the paper and pursue another pro-
fession, but I find the hatred so violent against me that it would follow
me for ever, and in any other situation I should not possess such formi-
dable means of defence. But the paper, tho' it maintains my family,
affords no surplus, even to discharge old debts, which has induced me to
extend my views to the bookselling and stationary j if encouraged in
268 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
these I may still thrive, or if changes take place here which would
influence the mercantile interest, my business would reward my past
and future industry.
I have taken the liberty to speak without reserve, because I entertain
that opinion of your liberality that you will excuse it. The world
think me making a fortune, because I am always cheerful! My
friends think it unnecessary to be very particular in their favors in the
way of business, because they say industry and talents like mine will
always meet reward ! The best paper in the United States must of
course be the most profitable ! But they never consider that there is
more money spent in making it a good paper, and more labour than
on any two papers in the union ! and that this must be the case, or it
must become as vapid and dull as those that are more profitable and
printed cheaper !
I proposed giving you an outline of the late legal proceedings, but
have already taken too much of your time. It is my purpose to peti-
tion Congress, and submit to its decision the evidence which the Circuit
Court refused.
It is my purpose to carry a sufficient supply of Stationary to Wash-
ington, if I should be so fortunate as to be favored by the heads of
departments — but unless I have an assurance of their support I cannot
subject myself to the heavy debt which I should incur by making a
suitable provision. If I had an estimate of the quantities required
for a given time, and assurance of favor, I could obtain a stock instantly
to any amount.
Believe me with the most sincere respect and attachment, your obed!
Servant.
To Joseph Nancrede. 1
I
Philadelphia, 30 September, 1801
Dear Str, — I received your two letters of the 11th duly, and have
ordered as you desire your subscription to cease. Your favoring me
as you propose with information from Europe will be a favor which I
shall acknowledge with gratitude, and for which the public will have a
right to be thankful, for in the present enslaved state of the press in
every nation of Europe no faithful information can be had from any,
and truth is only to be arrived at by a judicious examination of what
is suffered to be promulgated by rivals.
If you could by any means prevail upon any respectable bookseller
in London to become my correspondent, it would be rendering me an
essential service. You know very well my present standing, and my
having now the contract for serving the public offices of government
with stationery, and the Congress ; there can be no doubt of my arriving
1 Bookseller in Boston.
1906.] LETTEES OF WILLIAM DUANE. 269
at such a rank in the book-selling and stationery business as must
render my correspondence a very eligible one to any man in trade in
London. I should prefer the Robinsons, Johnson, or Debrett in Lon-
don, next to them West & Co., Paternoster Row. Should you recollect
these hints when in London, as it could not interfere with any pursuit
of yours, or of any other friend, it would be doing me a service that I
should be proud and ready to return to you on any occasion in any
other shape.
Your friend Dennie, I admired many years ago, and I believe I was
one of the first in America who paid the tribute which I conceived due
to his rising talents. He was then known to me only by his writings,
and not by name. I consider him still as possessing talents. But
Pickering whose touch was contagious, ruined him bv the aid of bad
company here, and the rarity of genius and talent among the growth of
mercenary young men, he was dazzled and deceived into an opinion of
his powers, extremely above their real level. He came to Philadelphia
expecting to find this city inhabited by such men as Mecamas and
Cosmo di Medici, but he found that his patrons were Tarquins without
magnificence, and Walpoles without profusion. He thought their reign
eternal and his fame and fortune secure as if all his fancies were real-
ities. He has been disappointed in everything, and has acted with the
indiscretion of a man of no genius. He lost himself and he forgot his
country. He was unfortunate in every step and in every project —
even the Port Folio is now tumbling under its own weight. If you
have anything to do with his partner Dickens settle it before you go.
Young Fenno, part of whose strangely acquired stock in trade they had,
has been in this city till this day — bringing about an account which
appears to have been saddled with a profusion of luxurious expence.
I suspect Denny will go to England — where he will experience ten
thousand disappointments which he never dreamt of, and he will there
either see his folly and repent — or sink into But I most sin-
cerely wish him a better fortune and a better fate than he has plunged
himself into. The Port Folio can not outlive the year. It has out-
lived its popularity even with its patrons already ! I am sorry to have
been obliged to contribute to its fall — but I conceived it my duty to
attack it, manfully and not meanly as I have been attacked.
I am very much gratified to hear that Mr. Tytler has undertaken
System of Geography, for a thousand reasons. His talents, his inde-
pendence of mind, and above all the deplorable ignorance which pre-
vails thro' every System published hitherto on the subject, requires
something to be done. I am proud it is to be done here and by Mr.
Tytler, whom tho' I do not personally know, I have long respected.
I was personally acquainted in London with his brother who at that
time wrote for the Whitehall Evening Post.
_= — —
270 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
I think you are perfectly right in excluding all matter of a mere
political nature. 1 do not mean thereby the desertion of truth or cor-
rect principles such as were laid down by Locke and Rousseau. But
such as are merely of a party nature. Geography is in fact wholly
political, as it relates to the power, territory, production, &c, and pop-
ulation of countries. It would afford me the utmost pleasure to con-
tribute all the knowledge I may possess, but I could render Mr. Tytler
very little information excepting in what relates to Asia only, where
several years residence and an attempt to compile a Gazette of Asia
while there made me better acquainted with that part of the world than
persons who have not had the same opportunities. I once began a
Geographical Gazetteer of India with the sanction of Sir Wm. Jones
and Sir John Shore, and was permitted access to the Documents of the
Revenue Department at Calcutta — but I was afterwards stopt, — for
what reason I was only left to conjecture !
What aid I could lend I would most cheerfully do it, but I think the
most serviceable aid I could give would be to point out the fallacies
and mistakes of former Systems. I have not seen Mr. Tytler's Geog-
raphy in Octavo, but I make no doubt that there are many corrections
made by him. Indeed in Salmon's and Guthrie's— -almost every thing
is said but what is fact concerning Asia. They have the outline of the
Map, and some names, but every thing else belongs as much to Africa
as to Asia. If I could have a perusal of the work which is to be the
Skeleton of the new system I could very easily go thro' it in a reason-
able time. The system laid down in your circular is excellent, and I
make no doubt it will repay your pains and expenses with profit. It
ought to [be] printed, and the engravings in the best Style possible, in
which case you would in Europe only find a market for three or four
thousand copies.
It would be impossible for you to derive advantage from the mode in
which you put your requisition for Information generally ; if you were
to put particular questions on the various points, and request answers
to them, you would derive great advantage — for example a series of
printed questions numbered addressed to every member of Congress at
the next Session would secure you information and perhaps subscribers.
Some of your questions might be stated in this way —
'* 1. Are the latitude and longitude of the towns in your district
accurately laid down ?
" 2. What are the natural productions in your district different from
those that surround you ?
" 3. What has been the increase of population in your state, county,
or township ? " &c, &c.
Accept my respectful wishes for your success.
Wm. Duane.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 271
To Pierce Butler. x
Philadelphia, Nov. 12, 1801
~D T . Sir, — I should have replied to yours of the 19 th inst. before,
had not the urgency of law in the first instance and nay Stationary
engagements for Washington city engrossed the whole of the time that I
could spare from ordinary duties. Major Jackson has not for some years
appeared active in local politics. He wrote much in 1797, in the
Philadelphia Gazette of which I had been Editor for several months.
After Mr. Adams's election he sat down a while, but on the organiza-
tion of the system of terror he began to write again in the same paper.
He became somewhat active on the creation of McPherson's Janissaries,
and was appointed to stir up the Society of Cincinnati. He was ad-
mitted to all the deliberations which Mr. Adams deigned to hold with
his inferiors, and I have heard was much offended at the airs of supe-
riority there assumed by the Great Man of Braintree. In our state
election he did not appear openly in 1799, but he was very active in
private and attended at Dunwoody's several times. In the 1799—
1800 he was very indignant at the failure of Mr. Ross, and was among
the most vociferous declaimers against the hotwater rebellion. He was
one of those who recommended hanging on that occasion, and reprobated
the pardons extorted by Mr. Dallas's memorial to Mr. Adams. The
memorable meetings at Trenton were first made known to him in this
city, and from a friend of his I had the facts which I published at that
time, and which astonished him and others, tho' the major part of the
public conceived the information unfounded. I knew them to be true
by having another channel of information which was not known to the
former, and both agreeing. Time has proved their truth, in the dis-
grace of Pickering then foretold, and the fall of Hamilton's influence
and office. Major Jackson from the spring of 1801, became extremely
passive. Upon the approach of the Election of President he was invited
out and called upon to aid in sustaining a party of which he was told
he appeared to despair by his lukewarmness. The party was in fact
divided and the majority of the Federalists here and in the legislature -
being in favor of Mr. Adams, Major Jackson who has [had] declared
for Mr. C. C. Pinckney, quitted them, became wholly inactive and left
the party to carry on their intrigues under the direction of the Tilgh-
mans, Rawle, Lewis, Ingersoll, Gurney, Hollings worth, etc. During
the agitations occasioned by the uncertainty of the S. Carolina Votes,
Major Jackson constantly attended the Coffee House, contrary to his
usual custom, and once asserted that a letter had been received from
you 2 intimating that Pinckney would be elected. He did not say that
1 Jeff. MSS. 2 In the margin is written : " No such letter was written by P. B."
272 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
he had the letter from you, but that he had heard you wrote such a
letter ; which occasioned a very strong sensation here for some days ;
and it occasioned a gala at Mr. Bingham's.
When the truth of the Carolina vote came out, there was a total
change. All the officers of the Customs assumed an air of moderation.
I took notice of some of the acts of some of them, and Major Jackson
called on me in the Printing office, when he produced a letter which he
wished me to read, and asked me if I knew the handwriting with which
I professed to be unacquainted. I knew it to be Mr. Jefferson's, but de-
clined reading it as I did not know why it was produced. He informed
me that it was a mistake very generally received that he was inimical to
Mr. J. that on the contrary he had always admired his talents and virtues,
and he was apprehensive that from what had been published in the Aurora,
the Editor was under the same impression. I barely replied that I
certainly had formed an opinion for myself on the subject. He requested
me then to read the letter, which I did ; it was a letter of recommenda-
tion, of date in either 1784 or 1785, expressed in general terms, stating
Major Jackson to have served with credit in the revolution, that he
was a man of respectable talents, and an American ! I made no obser-
vation, and he withdrew reasserting his very profound respect for Mr.
Jefferson.
He continued so strongly fixed in this change that when the French
treaty came to be discussed, he maintained in a public speech, the
excellency and advantages of that treaty, at the Coffee House, and de-
clared that it ought to be ratified in all its parts; and he wrote several
sheets in defence of it. Some secret movement of which I have never
been able to reach the bottom, produced a total change of opinion in
him and Mr. Bingham, who at first agreed in the excellence of the
treaty with France. Mr. Bingham was suddenly called to Washington,
voted for the rejection of the French treaty, and was the mover of the
motion for rejecting the second article which was finally carried.
Major Jackson made the discovery about the same time that he had
been mistaken at first and unsaid publicly all that he had before publicly
declared.
During the contest on the Presidential question in Congress in Feb-
ruary, Major Jackson chose his ground with perspicacity, and undertook
to write Mr. Jefferson an assurance that all the Merchants of Philadelphia
wished him elected. He called together those who had before divided
with him in favor of Pinckney against Adams, and they drew up a
paper (Jackson the Scribe) addressed to the Pennsylvania delegation
recommending them to support Mr. Jefferson, a copy of which you will
believe reached another place beside the professed destination.
From that time to the late election he has acted with the utmost
circumspection and silence. But the republicans in the Custom House,
—-
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 273
particularly Major Simons, feel the hatred he holds them in. His con-
duct is not so insolent as heretofore, but it is superciliously insulting ;
he apprehends that Major Simons will succeed to his situation (which
I hope and trust will be the case) and renders the duty to him more
severe and rigid than it ever has been. Major Jackson has made no
open public efforts on the late election, his only step was giving his
vote, and visiting others to excite them out. Latimer's conduct is in-
tolerable, his malice in some late instances to some republican merchants
is not to be described. Nothing will appease the people here but a
complete sweep of the Custom House.
I shall be at Washington on the 21 s * and during the whole session.
If I can be the means of any service or communicating any information
it will afford me pleasure to shew my respect for you in that or any
other way. Your obed 1 Servant
To Jefferson}
Washington, Jan. 7*£ 1802
Sir, — The appearance of the Indian Chiefs in the House of Repre-
sentatives this morning, has revived in my mind a subject upon which
I have long reflected, and concerning which it was my purpose long
since to have taken the liberty of addressing you.
A consciousness of the superiority of the Whites, has at all times
prevailed among the Indians and influenced them much more than the
generally received notions, that they felt a consciousness of their
superiority over the whites.
To remove their prejudices would I respectfully presume be the most
effectual mode of rendering them happy, securing their attachment to
us, and for ever depriving European nations of their instrumentality.
This I conceive might be effected by provisions for allowing each of
the Indian Nations, a Representation in the Congress of the United
States, under such limitations and conditions as would give them a due
sense of their consequence in the American nation, and the common
blessings and advantages which would accrue to them, by their incorpo-
ration with a nation so important, and under circumstances perfectly
analogous to their own ideas of delegation.
I will not enter into a detail of the form of producing this momen-
tous change. I flatter myself that the difficulties would be trivial, and
the expence inconsiderable, compared with the advantages which it
would produce to the Indians and to the Union.
I can only just add, that this subject being mentioned a considerable
time since to a Canadian Englishman, he deprecated the idea, and
solicited earnestly that it might not be mentioned as it would destroy
i Jeff. MSS.
35
274 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
the British influence for ever, and throw the Fur trade wholly into the
States. I am, Sir, &c.
To Jefferson}
W. Duane's respects. No copies of the Country Aurora have ever
been reserved, and only ten of the daily paper ; if the Daily Aurora
will be acceptable, it will be [have?] to be ordered from Philadelphia,
as none of 1801 are yet bound. No map of Maryland is to be had
here. I have ordered two different copies from Philadelphia, which
if they should not be acceptable, or either of them, can be kept here
for sale, they being in demand.
23d. April, 1802.
To Abraham Bishop.
Frankford, Aug. 28th, 1802
Dr. Sir, — - 1 think Mr. Atwater might enter into the Bookselling
with advantage — and that he might find persons readily disposed to
enter into engagements with him here, and at New York & Boston. —
the circumstances of the place appear as you describe them peculiarly
favorable. Attendance at the next fair would be the most likely mode
to accomplish his views at once — any assistance in my power, in the
way of trade or advice is at his command.
Your book I received and thank you for it heartily. The fever at
Philadelphia will prevent the sale — - however, we shall see in Octo-
ber. At present the fever rages with extreme violence — the accounts
of our Board of Health are not to be relied on — they are timid, and
interested to conceal calamity, as they conceive. One of my news car-
riers who remained against my consent was taken ill last night — there
are not ten thousand people in Phila. out of 60,000 and yet the con-
tagion diffuses itself.
I have had advice of your books being shipt for me but have not yet
received them owing to the state of the City. It will be impossible to
say what may be the prospect of sale for a second Edit, here till we
have tried those that are on the way hither — if it were to sell equal
with its value, I could speak on the subject.
Your correspondence with Dfenniston] & Cheetham I lamented to
see. I endeavoured to prevent its going on — and I regretted that my
name had been introduced in the business, either on that point or any
other. It was impossible for me with all my efforts to keep out of it —
and in the general business I see I must take a very decided part soon.
I did not authorize my name to be used as one who saw you at Lan-
caster, nor was I advised of it or asked until I saw it in print. The
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 275
use must have been made upon the ground of letters written by me
while we were at Lancaster, tho' I never reported any such conversa-
tion of yours. By the bye, I think a man who had never seen or
known Mr. Jefferson, and had only heard of him thro' the calumnies of
his adversaries, might very innocently have expressed such apprehen-
sions as generally prevailed, that he wanted firmness and vigor &c.
Many worthy men and warm admirers of Mr. Jefferson have suggested
such doubts to me and expressed a fear that the mildness of his char-
acter would be injurious to him. But I know many of these, who
now know that he is by far the most decided and uniform character
of the whole administration. Whether you ever uttered such senti-
ments in my hearing or not I really cannot say. I do not recollect
having ever said so — for indeed I pay very little attention to the
conversations of men whom I do not Respect, and I always since I
knew you entertained the best opinion of your head & heart.
I regret nevertheless that you noticed the note in the pamphlet
because it is generally conceived that tho' you shew the most capacity
you have the worst of the argument — and it is here with many
believed, that you are actually entered into an understanding with what
is called the little band, this was not believed before your correspon-
dence — and it requires something on your part to remove the impres-
sion. I can conceive your impressions in the controversy — but nine
out of ten cannot. It appears to me of little consequence whether you
did or did not of a morning or an evening express an opinion — at the
period in question — Every man at that time looked round and thought
for himself upon what appeared to him the most likely to serve the
general interests of the republic. And no man can be condemned if he
was so unfortunate as to be misinformed. The question indeed must
come to a different issue now. — for it is gone too far to be within the
power of the healing art. The question will be " Has Mr. Jefferson
fulfilled or disappointed the 'public expectations — or has he done what
upon the whole is most for the honor and interest of the Republic." The
decision on this question may be made without taking what are the
merits of Mr. Burr into view at all. But it will not be done so.
Another question will then arise. Shall Mr. Burr be preferred to Mr.
Jefferson'? This will involve the discussion which has been already
protruded on the public — and the occurrence of which I have lamented
and still lament.
I have not nevertheless, been without my opinion — nor have I been
without solid reasons for the formation of one — which this is not the
time to state — but I will state my opinions leaving the reasons to that
period when it may be necessary to make them public (I hope it never
may). But my opinion is that Mr. Jefferson has fulfilled the trust
reposed in him to the public advantage and his own honor.
276 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
I think Mr. Burr ought not to be preferred — nor put in competition
with Mr. Jefferson. I could give you such solid reasons as might
perhaps surprise you — reasons personally known to me and communi-
cated to a feio only that I may be exonerated from improper motives in
my withholding them from the public now. My wish was to prevent
any schism — or at least the appearance of it — I could not prevent it,
but this was owing greatly to the incurable indiscretion of a young man
named Davis in N. York — who being refused a lucrative office in
N. Y. has been the cause of the explosion. Davis has just addressed
an impertinent letter to me, which I shall answer in a way that will
surprize him, and if he has only the indiscretion to publish it, I must at
once enter the field against Mr. Burr. I am under no obligation to
one or the other — I never asked one or the other a favor. Mr. J.
never tendered one, Mr. B. did — and I refused. So at least I stand
independent of favor. In fact I am under no obligation to any man in
America in any way that ought to control my opinion or bias my judg-
ment. If I depended upon anything but my own activity and prin-
ciples, I should have been left in the Slough of party long ago, trodden
upon, and like my predecessor forgotten. My independence is my
pride — and you saw enough of my domestic concerns to perceive that
I am not the most miserable man in the world. In this state all con-
fidence in Mr. B. is gone. Governor McKean is the man talked of as
the future republican candidate for V. P. no other has been talked of,
notwithstanding what has been said in the papers. Persons here who
wish Mr. B. will have suffered in their popularity by defending Mr. B.
and an argument used for encouraging an evening newspaper in Phila-
delphia in opposition to mine, was that I was not decided against Mr. B.
This did not shake my sentiments, as I am too well accustomed to
things of this kind to mistake their effect or intention. Anything you
chuse to write me on this subject shall be sacred. What I write you,
you will perceive is an evidence of my respect & confidence in you.
Yours sincerely.
To Jefferson. 1
Frankford, Oct? 18, 1802.
Sir, — The bustle attendant on our election affairs here will I hope
excuse the delay of three days since the receipt of your letter. Upon
the receipt of the Instructions concerning the Books from London and
Paris, I immediately addressed the originals to Messrs. Johnson in Lon-
don and Pougens in Paris, with Duplicates of each in my handwriting
to Mr. Erving and Short, directing the Booksellers to call on those
Gentlemen. I fear the removal of Mr. Short may retard the business
i Jeff. MSS.
^-
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 277
at Paris ; the business in London is in a fair train, as I have had a
letter from rny correspondent there, within the present month. I shall
take the first occasion that presents itself to address Mr. Pougens
again ; tho' 1 have no doubt that from your note, independent of the
confidence which he has already manifested in me that the order will
be duly executed, even if he should not have thought it advisable to
apply to Mr. Livingston.
Our elections in Pennsylvania generally are as they ought to be.
Some unhappy misunderstandings have secretly existed which alarmed
many and portended some injurious consequences. The evil has, how-
ever, been in this county and the City completely checked ; tho at the
expence of a good man's feelings. I mean Dr. Logan. No man
esteems him more than I do, but he was the true instigator of the late
divisions in the county, and I am afraid it may yet come to an
unpleasant issue. I have kept his name out of View, but I had written
evidence of his being the cause of the dissention ; the consequences if
not thwarted might have been fatal through the State.
The jealousy among the principal republicans here requires a most
vigilant attention. Unfortunately while I am endeavoring to check
it, I am exciting the ill will of men whom I love, merely because I do
not suffer myself to be led aside from a great public interest to the
views of one or another individual.
The following is an outline of our leading men's dispositions towards
each other — and these five may be said to hold the principal weight.
1. Mr. Dallas. Offended with 2, unreservedly opposed to 4, cold
to 3 and 5.
2. Dr. Logan. Violently hostile to 1 ; Do. 3 and 5 ; good under-
standing with 4.
3. Dr. Leib. Hostile to 2 ; familiar with 1 and 4 ; common cause
with 5.
4. Mr. Cox[e]. Estranged but willing to be friends with 1 ; friends
with 2 ; familiar and friendly with 3 and 5.
5. Mr. Muhlenberg. Friendly with all, but displeased with 2, and
rather distant than familiar with 4.
I am sorry to say that no actual cause of jealousy exists with founda-
tion between them, but what is wholly political. Each of them in one
way or another considers his neighbor a rival ! and the loss of any
one of them would be to us a very serious evil. The Judiciary busi-
ness had very nearly destroyed Mr. Dallas, the late Address has I
think removed a great portion of the odium of that measure. Dr.
Logan looks to the governmental chair at the next election ; but I fear
his attacks upon Mr. Dallas and Dr. Leib, will shut him out from
every hope of that kind. Indeed Nos. 1, 3 and 4 are the fully efficient
men with us. Dr. Logan without the aid of the rest could do nothing;
278 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Mr. Muhlenberg by his strength of character and influence among the
Germans possesses a great weight, and this Leib shares with him ; but
Mr. Dallas and Mr. Coxe, who are the most capable men as writers,
possess severally a great influence in the city and country. It were
much to be wished they could be reconciled, for obvious reasons. The
next two years will require all our strength of talents and activity, and
Mr. Burr I make no doubt is laboring to assail every man's passions
who he may conceive of weight, or likely to go into the erection of a
third party.
From the rising young men we have not much to expect ; Mr. Dick-
erson is the only one who is decidedly republican that displays talents.
In the late County discussions he has been silent, knowing the interest
which his friend Dr. Logan took in the affair. Young Mr. Sergeant,
the Commissioner of Bankrupts, associates wholly with the opposition
party and barely says he is a republican ; he possesses talents, but they
are of no public use but in his law pursuits ; young Richard Bache
( Benjamin's younger brother) possesses talents, but he is yet a student
with Mr. Dallas ; there are about four other young men lawyers who
do not display any capacity for public affairs. The Value of such men
as Mr. Dallas and Mr. Coxe, and Mr. Dickerson is not to be lightly
estimated, considering that all the lawyers at the bar here are men of
much weight as members of society and property, and as they threaten
to bring out unprecedented efforts against the next presidential election.
Sitgreaves will not succeed in Montgomery. Conrad a stupid intrigu-
ing mercenary of no sound political principle will be the member, to
the exclusion of a man of worth and talents, Mr. Boileau. However,
Conrad cannot do harm.
I had written some time since a very long letter soliciting some
hints to enable me to repel the monstrous calumnies of a wretch that
deserves not to be named. 1 I was fearful of sending it directly, and
delayed it until I gladly perceived the public resentment was roused
against the Calumniator. Should there be any facts which may be
used to throw the villainous aspersions into a still more odious light,
I should wish to have them. I however propose about the close of this
month to go to Washington City to look after my business there, as I
find my clerk has been ill and the office wholly unemployed.
The adverse party here now say they mean to give up further con-
test, and to look on until they find us so effectually divided as to be
enabled to step in and decide by joining the party which will euter into
their views. This was expressed by Jacob Shoemaker, an influential
Quaker in Philadelphia, who acted as one of the Inspectors of the
Election. I am, etc.
1 James Thomson Callender, who was now writing against Jefferson.
1906.J LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 279
To Jefferson}
Pennsylvania Avenue, [Washington] Friday evening,
27 November, 1802
Sir, — My absence from home until this moment prevented my send-
ing an answer to your note before.
Young Cooper's name is Thomas Cooper — he appears to be about
22 years old.
Lacretelle's book I have not here but have written for it by mail to
Philadelphia, and requested it to be sent by some private hand.
Paine's third letter gives me considerable uneasiness, he has in fact
commenced the subject of the Age of Reason in it. I have tried every
effort of which I am capable to persuade him against it, but nothing
will operate on him. I have fairly told him that he will be deserted by
the only party that respects or does not hate him, that all his political
writings will be rendered useless, and even his fame destroyed ; but he
silenced me at once by telling me that Dr. Rush at the period when
he commenced Common Sense told him, that there were two words
which he should avoid by every means as necessary to his own safety
and that of the public, — Independence and Republicanism,
With respect, yours faithfully
To Madison.
Philadelphia, Aug. 3 d , 1803
Sir, — In consequence of a conversation with a member of Congress
who lately left Washington, I am induced to take the liberty of ad-
dressing you, to request, (if you judge it proper) a copy of Lord Hawkes-
bury's answer to Mr. King's note concerning Louisiana. I feel very often
the extreme want of some leading information, upon which I could rely
in rebutting the incessant attacks of the papers adverse to the Govern-
ment; I believe this inconvenience to be very generally felt among the
republican prints. If any mode could be adopted by which some of the
papers, to which the public look for correct information and vigorous
discussion, could be made acquainted occasionally with such facts as
may not be improper to be known, the effect on the public mind I am
persuaded would be beneficial, and the mortification and uncertainty in
which Editors who are attached to the principles of the Government
and its administration would be rendered less painful. I know that so
far as it concerns myself, I feel my situation much more irksome and
discouraging as an Editor than when my life was in hourly danger and
my only source of information was from the blunders or the audacity of
those who were in power.
i Jeff. MSS.
280 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAT,
I hope, Sir, you will excuse this liberty on account of the motive.
I am, with great respect Sir,
Your obedt Ser f .
W M Duane, Editor of Aurora.
Circular Letter to U. S. Senators.
Washington City, October 14th, 1803.
Sir, — I take the liberty of soliciting your countenance and good
offices, in favor of my application for the printing of the Journals of
the honorable Senate. Three years since, upon the invitation and per-
suasion of distinguished republicans, I established here a printing office
adequate to the execution of any quantity or any kind of printing, and
have executed a part of the work for Congress, to general satisfaction.
Circumstances did not admit of the fulfilment of the purposes of my
friends, with regard to the printing for the Senate, and the Journals
have been hitherto printed by a person of adverse politics, with whom
however, I did not think it delicate to be a competitor before this
period.
The distribution of this business is in the hands of the Secretary of
the Senate, under some control from the Vice President.
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant.
To Madison.
W m Duane's respects to M r Maddison — Sends a paper in which there
is an article, that it may be proper he should see — the same information
is stated in other papers of N York of not so hostile a character as the
N York Gazette.
W m D. would have waited on M r Maddison before now, but was
desirous not to intrude while there was likely to be any interruption
of other company and on the Subject of Spanish affairs he refrained
rather from saying any thing than endanger any erroneous or premature
discussion.
Aug. 10, 1805.
To Madison.
Aug. 27, 1805
With W m Duane's respects to M r Maddison
Francis Prueil, a French merchant connected with the Spanish Am-
bassador in many transactions, has recently applied to a tinman in this
city to make a lantern such as is used in the Service of Artillery by
night ; one was made, and it is understood that a large number more
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 281
are to be made. The Tinman suspecting that they might be intended
for some purpose hostile to the U. S. has hesitated whether he ought to
execute them — and would not if there were to be any reason to con-
firm his suspicions ; he advised with me, and I have told him he ought
to go on, so that their direction may be the more easily detected or
traced. As it is impossible for me to determine what opinion ought to
be informed on this subject, I thought it best to apprize you of it, and
should any steps be necessary to be made on the subject, I am sure the
man would aid. I have not however intimated to any one that I have
taken this step — as after all it may be of no moment.
Madison to Duane.
J. M. pres ts his respects to M r D. & in answer to his note of yester-
day evening, observes that he is not acquainted with any circumstances
denoting that the Artillery Lanterns on which the Tinman is employed,
may have a hostile reference to the U. States, or justifying an interposi-
tion in any form ag st the prosecution of the Job. Should the suspicions
entertained by the Tinman have any real foundation the course which
occurred to M r D. seems favorable to the requisite discoveries.
Philad*. Aug. 28.
To Jefferson}
Philadelphia, March 12, 1806
Respected Sir, — For a considerable time reports very injurious to
the public interest have been in circulation, in this city and in different
parts of the State. The sentiments of the people have on no occasion
been so strongly markfed] by sullen discontent, and public confidence
has been very much shaken, by the reports in question. The peculiar
situation in which I am placed is far from being grateful or desirable ;
the correspondence which I had been accustomed to maintain at the
seat of government being interrupted by my pecuniary affairs and the
necessity of attending on courts of law here ; and none of the members
of this district nor of the State, have condescended to communicate by
a single line during the present session. Destitute of any other chart
or land marks than those of common sense and my reliance on the
purity of your views, I have continued unmoved by rumour or by even
more authoritative inducements in my confidence and love of you.
I should not have addressed you on this occasion, did not the reports
in circulation appear to me as working effects the most pernicious to
the public interest and to your reputation particularly. Painful as it
is, it is fit nevertheless that you should not be ignorant of what is of
1 Jeff. MSS.
282 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
so much concern, and men in elevated situations are more frequently
deceived and flattered than correctly and candidly informed. As self-
interest has no share in this step, I persuade myself it will not be offen-
sive ; the reports already operate very unpleasantly on those who have
been active in the political transactions of the last ten years particularly.
It is said here — that you have thrown yourself into the arms of a
New England party, and given them your exclusive confidence ; that
the sturdy and independent republicans of the South are treated by you
with coldness, and reserve.
It is said in corroboration — that Mr. J. Randolph has openly at-
tacked your administration, and censured the measures proposed by the
administration to Congress.
In other quarters it is alleged — that there is only one member of
your Cabinet (Mr. Madison) who is not opposed to you — that the
Secretary of the Navy in concert with his brother traverses all your
measures concerning naval and commercial affairs. That the Secy, of
the Treasury conducts his department in such a way as to evince a dis-
approbation of your policy ; and the first report of his on the finances
and the proposition for paying off the debt, while your message indi-
cated vigorous measures of defence, is represented as a satire on your
message : that the Secretary at War, secretly governed by the Post-
master General, acts equally adverse, tho' under different views and
professions : that all these differing in particular views from each other,
yet cooperate upon some general principles which obstruct your best
measures, and that between all these inferior combinations the execu-
tive measures are frustrated and public confidence palsied.
Another report says that you have broken with the Secy, of the
Treasury, and that he is not consulted by you and that he proposes to
resign.
Another report has been stated from a very influential source —
that the business of the Executive is conducted like the Cabinet of St.
James — a concealed influence and an ostensible Cabinet — that there
is a public profession and a concealed counteraction of that profession.
From another quarter, and I saw it in writing, addressed to a gentle-
man in this city, and it is gone abroad, it is alleged in strong and posi-
tive terms, that you have unreservedly denounced the republicans who
are deemed the most ardent, by the injurious epithet of Jacobins ; that
you have made a declaration similar to that of Govr. McKean that you
would in future appoint to office none but the moderate men of both
parties ; that in a word you had avowed an unqualified preference and
predilection of those who are called third party men or Quids.
It is now in active circulation here and has been for some days, that
the expedition of Miranda, was previously known to and countenanced
by you and by Mr. Madison ; this was circulated upon authority which
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 283
was represented as official, and declared to have been so avowed by an
officer of the government. This story excited such a ferment at the
Coffeehouse, that I considered as a duty to trace it to its source. I
traced it to Mr. Joseph Priestly of Northumberland, who narrated it
to Mr. Ab. Small bookseller, as coming from Mr. Dallas, who Mr.
Priestly said believed it, and who he declared had said that republican-
ism was at an end, and that Mr. Jefferson and Mr, Madison would be
both impeached. Mr. Small and myself discredited the story, but Mr.
Edwd Fox related it also as coming from Mr. Dallas. The story was
told in a manner to excite attention and to shape incredulity. It was
alleged, that Miranda had brought a letter from an English under Secy
of State to Mr. Rufus King, and that Miranda was to engage ships in
the U. S. who were to cooperate with Sir Howe Popham against South
America; that Mr. King communicated the whole to the Secy, of
State — that Miranda was received and countenanced thereupon — that
the prosecution at New York was only a cover, and that when Mr.
Sandford was examining Mr. R. King, that Mr. Sandford put the word
unauthorized by Government — instead of authorized in Mr. King's
evidence, and that Mr. K. detected it, and that Sandford burnt the
evidence in consequence. The effect of such a report may be easily
conceived, but the concern which it excited among those who love you
and had not strength of mind to resist it is not to be described.
I have taken upon me in every instance, (relying for my belief upon
my opinion of your wisdom and goodness of heart,) to contradict all
these rumours and to dissipate them in every manner as far as I was
able. Circumstanced as I am, my situation as a politician and a citizen
has been extremely irksome, and it occurred to me that the only service
I could do you would be to make you acquainted with rumours which
produced consequences nearly as pernicious as if they had any founda-
tion. The interest of America, the stability of Republican Government,
and the glory of your own life, appear to me to depend upon the dis-
sipation of doubts and the course which you will pursue in your admin-
istration henceforward. The uncertainty which has prevailed during
the Session of Congress, has the common tendency in such occasions,
to be transferred from the divisible mass to the individual head of the
government, and the enemies of liberty and false friends find an interest
in propelling human passion in that path.
I have now done what I conceive to be a duty, arising from the venera-
tion and love I feel for you, and under convictions that no sentiment [or]
motive [of] an interested nature either actuate or can be charged upon
me on this or on any other political occation; and with an assurance that
if it were a case of peril or hazard, that I should come forward on your
behalf with more alacrity than I do in the present instance. It is not my
object to communicate this, nor have I consulted any human being on the
284 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
subject — and I neither claim any credit nor apprehend any censure
from you for the act ; because if I have mistaken the line of propriety,
I am assured of an excuse in your liberality ; and the intention will be
considered in place of the act.
I require no answer, because the satisfaction of knowing that you are
not offended I shall obtain on my going to the seat of Government
after the courts here close; and if I have offended I shall know it too
soon at any time. If haply I have done right, and that any communi-
cation from an observing and faithful friend should be agreeable in
future I would not hesitate; for I very much fear that there has been
too much treachery and deception practiced towards you by persons in
this quarter. If such communication should not be acceptable, the cir-
cumstance can make no alteration in my principles, for I shall be under
all circumstances your affectionate and faithful friend.
To Jefferson}
Philadelphia, Novr. 2d, 1806.
Respected Sir, — Sometime since during your sojournment at
Monticello, I forwarded you the loose sheets of a pamphlet in the
Spanish language, which I had printed secretly. The accompanying
affidavit will explain how I came to print it, under what impressions,
and for whom. As I am not competent to translate Spanish, and the
conduct of the Spanish ambassador here had been so disreputable to his
mission, I conceived it to be my duty to forward you that pamphlet, in
order that if it should contain any matter that might serve the govern-
ment of my country it should be possessed thereof. Indeed the ac-
companying affidavit expresses my sentiments and rule of action so
explicitly that with the knowledge you already possess of me, my
motives and conduct will require no explanation ; further than to ac-
count for the affidavit of which I send a copy.
It appears from the representation of Mr. Magdalena to me, that
Yrujo has sent charges to Spain against him — Magdalena, and among
other things he has alleged that I had published in my paper certain
facts which being known to no other person in this country but himself
(Yrujo) and Magdalena, those facts must have been communicated to
me by the latter. Upon this charge Yrujo has undertaken to suspend
the functions of Magdalena, who applied to me to declare the truth
whether or not I have ever had any information from him. The
affidavit is accordingly drawn up and Magdalena, desirous to give weight
as much as possible to the evidence which he brings to exculpate him-
self from Yrujo's accusation, has prescribed the mode of introduction
which you will see in the affidavit, as to my commission in the militia
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 285
and my religious education ; as I do not set any value on the titles and
as my education has not closed up my understanding, I could not re-
fuse to render him a service by an acquiescence in the use of facts that
are true. This explanation of the introductory form I deem due to
myself, lest it should be presumed, that I was so lost to good sense as
to be vain or superstitious.
I am at a loss to discover what the facts are which Yrujo complained
of as divulged to me. Accustomed to speculate in political affairs
below the mere surface, it appears that I must have penetrated the
Spanish mysteries of State. Your eminent situation may perhaps enable
you to judge what the secret really is ; for tho' it seems I discovered it,
it remains a secret to me to this moment ; for I have attempted to
anticipate so many things that unless it is the suggestion of a secret
understanding between Spain & Great Britain, I cannot recollect any
fact of sufficient moment to excite so much anger and apprehension.
I have endeavored in the affidavit to say as much in corroboration
of the general sentiment of the country against Yrujo as my knowledge
and truth justifies.
Magdalena means to send my original affidavit and that of my son to
Spain ; he says Yrujo has sent orders to all the agents of Spain in the
United States not to forward any despatches for him to Spain; he told
me he placed so much confidence in your private virtues and generosity
that he would request to have it transmitted to some of the American
Consuls in Spain.
I printed six copies of the Spanish pamphlet with the purpose that
if it should prove useful to the government to place a copy in the hands
of our ambassadors or Consuls in Spain or France that they might be
had — if they can be of any such use, they shall be forwarded.
On political transactions of a domestic nature I do not mean to tres-
pass on you. My opinions and sentiments on particular men and circum-
stances I know cannot be agreeable to you, tho' from my soul I believe
that in so doing I am acting more faithful to my attachment to you,
than if I forbore from scotching the snakes that trouble your path. I
have no favor to ask, nor motive for uttering my sentiments of any
public men, but public motives ; and if I should be mistaken, in any
particular, the mistake will be my own, for I am neither to be led nor
driven from the path of principle.
There is a pamphlet in the press of S. F. Bradford in this city. It
is an attack on your administration ; the proofs are sent to Jersey for
revisal, and I suspect go farther on. It is proper to be apprised of this,
because it seems to be intended to make an impression on the open-
ing of Congress. If furnished with suitable material I would at once
reply to it, and shall endeavor to procure one of the first copies to
send you.
^— — " .11
286 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Excuse Respected Sir, this among the many trespasses I have made
on you — the motive if estimated as I feel will fully gratify me. With
respect
Permit me to ask the return of the affidavits &c, as I have no other
copy and it may be proper to be possessed of a copy lest Yrujo on his
return to Spain should misrepresent and send the misrepresentation
here. I do not require any other answer, as your time must be amply
engaged.
To Jefferson. 1
Philadelphia, Novr. 4th, 1806
Sir, — The rumors in circulation here, concerning disturbances in
Kentucky have excited a very strong sensation. It will be of some
importance by some means to settle the public feeling on the subject.
The whole country will be with you if there is any actual exigency.
If there is not the administration may derive great advantage from a
seasonable counteraction of the alarm.
Judging it not impossible that there may be some disturbance, should
my services in any situation for which my habits and cast of mind may
fit me, be required, I make a respectful tender of them to you. I seek
no office of emolument, all I wish is to be placed in such a situation as
that I may be able to render public effective service. I am, &e.
To Jefferson. 2
Philadelphia, November 16, 1806.
Respected Sir, — The enclosed is a literal copy of a communica-
tion made to me. The author I do not know, but the subject appears
to me of too much importance not to be put in your possession, as I
conceive my duty to my country cannot justify me in withholding from
the Magistrate whose duty and evident wishes are to preserve its
honor, peace and prosperity. I do not wish for any answer. I only
send it as I have expressed it, from a sense of duty — and shall do so
should any further communication be made as is promised.
With the utmost respect, &c.
— to Duane. s
(Literal Copy.) Michigan territory, 16 Oct? 1806.
Mr. Duane, — The following broken hints are communicated, not
to be published by any means, nor even shewn to any person, but
merely to possess you of facts transpiring in a certain part of the
i Jeff. MSS. 2 Jeff. MSS .
3 This paper is in Duane's writing.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 287
western world, that you may compare them with other things which
may come in your way ; and should you allude to them, or any part of
them, it must be done intirely in your own way and language. More
will be furnished as things proceed. The writer would have no objec-
tion to giving you his name, if the risk of transportation were not so
great.
In June, 1805, Gov r Hull came first to Michigan territory. Win.
Kettletas of N York was in company, who met him at Fort Erie, a
British post opposite Buffalo creek. K. proceeded to Michilimackinac,
and from thence to St. Louis, and became an inmate of Gen! Wilkin-
son's family, by whom, it is said, he was appointed Att^ Gen! of Louis-
iana, and is expected to return to that territory the present season.
Judge Woodward (at present senior judge of Michigan) came up
thro' the State of Ohio. This man is a perfect Quid in politics, laughs
at patriots and patriotism ; wishes never to see another political news-
paper, was converted soon after his arrival, to the Roman Catholic or
Canadian religion, and withal appears ambitious beyond measure ; and
if a judgment may be formed from several things which have been
transacted by him, is ready to stick at nothing to accomplish his
views. Governor H. has been unfortunate in the Yazoo business, and
generally supposed to be ruined, unless some new enterprise can save
him.
Matthew Ernest met the governor on the British Shore, upon his
arrival, took him to his house, and became a most intimate, almost
indispensable companion. This Ernest is brother-in-law of Gen!
Wilkins of Pittsburg, and came to Detroit as commissary, and was a
close friend of Gen! Wilkinson. Tho' he first failed in the Commissary
line, yet under Wilkinson his house became wonderfully replenished
with plate and rich furniture, and he lived in the highest stile. He
was appointed also collector of the Customs at Detroit, from which he
was removed in 1805, for some malconduct in respect to the revenue.
[Mr. Duncan was collector of Michilimackinac, not Detroit.] Ernest
mysteriously departed for Kentucky about ten weeks after the Gover-
nor's arrival, leaving his family at Petroit, and carried with him about
$8,000 of the public money remaining in his hands as collector ; for
which suits are now going on against his estate and sureties. Previous
to his departure he was made by the Governor treasurer of the terri-
tory, and Colonel in the Militia. Other principal military offices have
been given to known monarchists, and friends of Britain, to the no
small chagrin of some republicans of merit. From the period that
Col. Ernest left the territory, till the present, not a syllable has been
publicly known here concerning him, which is now more than a year.
Not a letter has arrived by mail, superscribed in his handwriting, tho'
several in that of others addressed to him and family. He went from
288 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Kentucky to N. York, about the time Miranda fitted out there, and is
generally thought to have been embarked with him. It is by some
imagined that Mr. Duncan has done the same, who carried away
30,000 $ or more of the public money.
Colonel Smith, of* N. York (the same concerned in fitting out
Miranda) pretends to possess a claim to an immense tract of land in
Michigan territory. Gov' H. was applied to by the said Smith to
become a sharer in the same ; but it is not known whether he did or
not.
A law was passed by the Govf and judge W. to enable Aliens to
acquire, hold and transfer real estate in the territory of Michigan, as
freely and on the same principles as a citizen of the U. States. Judge
Bates (the only associate judge present at the time) entered a protest
against this law.
It has been and is freely advanced by some men in Michigan, (of no
small consequence, and among them some of the garrison) that the
American territory is too large for a single government, that the
interest of the widely extended parts cannot be properly regulated by
one body of men, &c.
The closest intimacy has been cultivated on the part of the Governor
and the officers of the American garrison, with the British officers and
leading men on the Canadian shore : splendid feasts, balls and visita-
tions have been very frequently exchanged. Aid has been lent from the
American garrison to assist British officers in hunting their deserters on
the American territory, and committing violence and outrage on the
citizens. And when those officers have been arraigned as offenders
before our highest court, they have been permitted to wear their swords
in the court, and have lived in the utmost splendor in our garrison, and
at the Governor's table, while prisoners for the most outrageous
breaches of the peace. A preference is given by the Gov^ to the
counsels of the British commander respecting the Indians in our neigh-
bourhood and territory, their instructions, designs, &c, above the
counsels of the most experienced American citizens.
An unaccountable assurance amounting to the total exclusion oj
doubt is possessed by the Governor and Judge W[oodward] that the
Indians will never again molest the frontier settlements, not even in
case of a war between America and England. They have answered
to those who have disbelieved this, that such inhuman policy will be
henceforth discarded by Great Britain ! The Governor's proceedings
in respect to the Militia of the territory, and in stile with these assur-
ances ; for he is training and uniforming them apparently more for
fighting regular enemies than Indians, more for the field than the bush.
The proper defensive works against Indians he appears to think very
lightly of, and holds them unnecessary.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 289
In Oct 1 : J 805 the Gov r and judge W[oodward] departed together for
the States. Both at that time said it was uncertain whether they should
return to Michigan any more. They went via N. York to Washington
and were there at the session of Congress. I believe immediately after
the question on the Yazoo claims was decided, the former left Wash-
ington for Boston. The latter still remained at Washington where he
continued some time after Congress rose. At Boston a number of men
(supposed to be Yazoo claimants) suddenly formed themselves into a
banking company for the purpose of establishing a bank at Detroit.
They filled up most of the shares, leaving a few only to be taken in Michi-
gan territory. In June last the Gov' came from Boston to Detroit, bring-
ing with him some brass field pieces, and a quantity of arms, cutlasses,
pistols, &c, with orders to draw muskets from the public arsenal, all
for the use of the militia. He also brought materials for building, and
soon set about erecting a house, or rather palace, which is now pro-
gressing and will cost from 10 to 15,000 $. A profound silence reigns
relative to the defeat of the Yazoo claims. Those claims at his departure
last fall were a topic of conversation. In July, the Cashier pi the pro-
posed Bank came on from Boston, with his family, bringing part of the
specie, with irons, &c, ready made to proceed upon the building of a
banking house. He soon proceeded to erect an expensive building be-
fore any law had passed to establish the bank, or even a legislative
board were present, for Judge W[oodward] had not yet arrived, and
Judge Griffin had never been in the territory. All went on in the
strongest manner without any question either of permission or of success.
In August two or three other principal owners of shares came on from
Boston (among them one Nathaniel Parker) bringing still more specie.
In company with these Judge Woodward arrived, having been absent
almost eleven months. Several active young gentlemen also came,
and are still coming, from that quarter, who are patronized by the
Governor and fill every place of any profit in his gift. Some are yet
without business.
The first act of the legislative board, after Judge W[oodward] ar-
rived, was to establish the bank by law. Not a little to the surprize
of the citizens, the law admits a capital in specie of One Million of
dollars, with liberty to extend branches wherever the directors please !
Such an immense deposit of cash in this western world appear to most
people a paradox, which none can satisfactorily explain. The trade of
this country is a barter of peltries for goods, and little cash is used.
Some are bold enough to conjecture, that an object is in view threaten-
ing to the Union of the States, especially as it is reported that other great
deposits of cash are making in various parts of the Western World.
The citizens of Detroit are now in considerable commotion, caused
by a very singular attempt as they think, to oust them from their
37
290 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
dwellings which they built on the public domain (by permission of the
board) after the destruction of the town by fire last summer. You will
probably see a more particular account of this business which it is
thought will be made public. It is conceived by some, that their
houses are or will be wanted by Yazoo men, of whom it is said large
numbers will come in next year, under the characters of farmers.
Those from Boston, now here, say donations of land must be given
them, to encourage them to come. The Governor and Judge
W[oodward] obtained 10,000 acres by an act of Congress last winter,
which is to-be at the disposal of the legislative board. It is to be ad-
jacent to Detroit. Most of the farms in this territory are now under
mortgage, and the mortgages will be lodged in the Bank for cash, by
those who hold them. It is expected many of the old inhabitants will
be obliged to quit leaving their homes and farms in the hands of the
bankers.
Gov. r Hull says that a Mr. Jackson a member of Congress from
Virginia, a man of great talents and public virtue, is about removing into
Michigan territory ; and that several other equally distinguished charac-
ters are also expected to bend their course in the same direction.
A Bill to amend an act entitled l - an act to divide the Indiana terri-
tory into two separate governments, and for other purposes," was
introduced into Congress last winter, by a committee of which the
above Mr. Jackson was chairman : it was framed by Judge W[oodward]
and proposes a material change in the government of Michigan con-
ferring despotic power in certain instances, and calculated to repress
and root out the present Secretary of the territory Mr. Griswold,
whose strict republican principles and zeal for the preservation of the
union of the States, is not fitted for their views, while he is in a situation
to know the proceedings carried on, in public and private ; there are a
few others equally obnoxious, but we are not so much exposed to the
angry feelings of the speculating body as he is, and are beside totally
independent of their power unless it be abused. The above bill passed
the House of Representatives, but was laid over in Senate till next
Session. This Bill with some remarks thereon, will probably be sent
you before the next meeting of Congress.
A law passed Congress last session, which excites some observation,
by which the public land offices are forbidden to receive any more evi-
dence of the public debt for lands hereafter to be sold, and are required
to receive cash only. Where there is much fraud going on and very
alarming rumours abroad, men are apt to be suspicious ; and there is
more safety in a jealous vigilance than a too confident security. It is
not therefore surprizing that many should conceive that the design of this
measure (unknown and carefully concealed from Congress) is to assist
the deposit of cash in the western world, against a great occasion.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 291
A correspondence is going on between Judge W[oodward] (since his
return) and some other unknown person or persons, at a distance, writ-
ten in disguised letters, or using one letter for another, and on paper
curiously stamp' d and stained upon the edges — but further discoveries
on this subject are expected to be made.
To Jefferson. 1
Phil. Dec. 8, 1806
Respected Sir, — Had I not made the brief communication a few
days since concerning Commodore Truxton's interview, I should not
have deemed an anonymous article received through the Post office
worthy of noting by letter, especially as it may be either well founded
or malicious in its intention. I shall inclose the original note, and
shall beg it to be returned as I may possibly trace the handwriting.
Some circumstances that have come within my knowledge may tend
perhaps to throw some light on other points. When Mr. Burr was in
this city last year he lodged at Mr. Gardette's a Frenchman a dentist a
very worthy man and I believe sincerely devoted to the happiness and
interests of the United States. This person's son is a young man of
talents, his education has a French cast, and he is an able draughtsman
and musician ; this young man Mr. Burr took with him. The young
man is now at home; but in the event of any evidence being required no
doubt his would be important so far as he saw and drafted, for I do not
suspect that he was ever apprised of Mr. Burr's designs. A brother of
the elder Mr. Gardette arrived here about two years since from France ;
he had been a captain in the French army, and had seen considerable
service. He was bred a chintz pattern carver or engraver, and had made
very considerable progress in arrangements for his business here ; suddenly
a few months ago, perhaps about May or June, he discontinued that
pursuit, and the first I heard of him was at Pittsburg, and his descend-
ing the Ohio. The connection of the circumstances may possibly be
accidental, but under the circumstances of the transactions in the West,
little incidents of this nature may lead to more important developments.
I do not know the name of this captain, or whether he uses the family
name.
Another incident has come within my knowledge. Two or three
months ago, Mr. John Craig merchant in this city, applied to Messrs
Binney and Ronaldson for types to a considerable amount, destined for
Mexico, and calculated and cast for the Spanish language to the value of
2,000 $. They understood that the person who ordered them was Mr.
Fernandez (Note I have since seen the original Spanish order. The
name is not the same exactly, it is Fernando. The merchant here is
John Craig, at Baltimore a merchant of the name of Oliver). The
i Jeff. MSS.
292 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
name I recollect to be the same as that of a gentleman of considerable
intelligence and impressive manners who was in several parts of the
U. S. not long ago. But it may not be the same person. The circum-
stance which struck me as deserving of notice in the case was, that the
types being sent to Mr. Craig's on Monday (the day your proclamation
arrived here,) Craig denied that he ordered them, and said the order
came from Baltimore ; the letter containing the order is in the hands of
Binney & Ronaldson, and it is addressed on the cover to John Craig,
Esq. They conclude that the types were intended for the conspirators.
Commodore Truxton called today again but being somewhat unwell
I did not see him. But I think it fit to notice some of the conversation
which he held on the former day. He appears to entertain a deadly
hatred of Gen. Smith & Mr. R. Smith, and meditates a voluminous
critical discussion on the " mismanagement " of the naval department.
As I was not at all reserved in my profession of respect or dislike of
men, he entered very largely into his "wrongs" and attributed them
wholly to the enmity of the above gentlemen, and to a mercantile dis-
pute »of a very remote date. He said that Mr. R. Smith had
endeavored to impress Mr. Burr with an opinion that the " treatment "
of Com. Truxton was wholly the act of the President, and that he
Smith lamented and deplored it. But Truxton stated that now he was
rather disposed to think that Burr was endeavoring to work upon his
resentments with a view to enlist him in his enterprises " against
Mexico", — that he believes Burr in professing to serve him and to take
an interest in his case was deceiving him, and that while he was calling
the two Smiths by the most execrable names, he was stimulating them
to persevere in their proscription of him (Truxton). That from the
amicable manner you had at first received him, he was persuaded the
hostility did not proceed from you; and that some artifices must have
been employed to deceive you between that period and the second time
he waited on you, when he said you received him with studied coldness.
This explanation of his discourse, it is but fit should accompany the
anonymous note ; as it may be very possibly the act of an enemy of
Truxton, though it certainly merits a cautious pursuit and inquiry,
from the obvious connection of the parties, Dayton and Burr.
I shall just beg leave to suggest, that many of your warmest and
most devoted friends here conceive that some notification to the several
states concerning the militia, or the first measures for providing a con-
tingent to be organized upon a further call, would not only greatly
serve the public interest but produce many other salutary effects, in
promoting a disposition in the country to maintain some appearance of
a constitutional militia. Maryland and Delaware being without any ;
and in fact in this state, the Governor encourages every measure that
can tend to dispirit or to retard an efficient organization. The tax is
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DtTANE. 293
excessive on those who belong to uniformed corps, and the command of
a regiment stands the commander in 200 or 300 dollars a year expense
so lax is the system. This, however, I submit with deference.
Extracts from a second communication from Michigan 22 October.
" A bank is established at this place under the auspices of certain
gentlemen of Boston, among whom are Russell Sturges, Nathaniel
Parker, two Basses, one Coverley, one Wheeler, &c, &c. John Jacob
Astor, of New York, and some others of that city, and elsewhere on
the Atlantic coast, are concerned. By the law formerly noticed
establishing this bank, it admits of a specie capital of a million of
dollars, and branches may be extended to any other place at the discre-
tion of the concern. Only 20,000 % are called in to begin with."
Extracts from a third communication, 5 Novr.
" You will receive a Bill by the mail that takes this from Detroit.
That Bill is now pending in S. U. S. accompanying which will be also
sent a Remonstrance of the Grand Jury of this territory against certain
provisions therein. Had the Bill no other bearing than those merely
local to the territory and government it is probable that you would not
be asked to publish them. But many of us here and of the best
informed sedate men consider from some provisions which it contains
that it is calculated to facilitate a great nefarious and traitorous design
now hatching in the Western country.
" Mr. Jackson of Virginia noticed in a former communication was
the chairman of the committee that framed the Bill, and from what I
learn since I wrote before he is a very different character from what
I then conceived. Governor Hull and Judge Woodward were at
Wash n , when the bill was brought forward. Woodward it is said drew
it up. Before those gentlemen left the territory in 1805, not a syllable
was suggested of any necessity or design to alter the government of the
territory. The project was hatched probably at Washington, and
Woodward is said to have been very strenuous to push it through last
session, that the business might be completed before any hint of it
should transpire here where we were to be most affected by it. It
failed in the Senate after passing the other house, an unlucky stroke
for the Judge, a fortunate one for the people here. The governor on
his return in June brought the first copy and the first knowledge that
existed of the Bill in this territory. It was shewn only to a select few
until the Judge arrived in September. Soon after the Supreme Court
held a session, and a grand jury of the most respectable citizens from
every part of the territory were summoned to attend. Judge Wood-
ward among other things committed this Bill to their consideration and
said it wanted only the approbation of the Grand Jury to pass the
294 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
U. S. Senate, which Congress would consider as the sense of the
territory. He recommended that if they were in its favor they should
so report, if they disapproved a report was not necessary. He was
careful however not to commit his charge to writing. The G. Jurors
read the Bill with astonishment, and reported their candid sentiments
to the court. At an adjourned session soon after they took it up again
and a Remonstrance which will be sent you was the result of their
unanimous deliberation and vote.
" In the obnoxious provisions of the Bill beside private objects, the
meditated aggrandizement of the Judge has excited much indignation ;
there are two other objects that I shall particularly point out to you.
because they bear upon the nefarious and traitorous conspiracy before
alluded to — at least in case such a design be in operation, of which
none of the intelligent men here doubt.
" First. As the essential mark of despotism is manifestly borne on
the provisions regarding the change of this territorial government, it
appears to have been intended to try the republicanism and spirit of
the people in this quarter, to see whether they possessed a substantial
regard for principles or whether they might not be led passively to
follow a despot and engage in any undertaking, however flagitious,
desperate or destructive of their own freedom or the happiness of
America; and finally to see how they might relish an imperial or
royal government, should such an one be set up west of the mountains,
or possibly the British government should it [be] thought necessary to
give G. Britain a slice of this fur trade and peltry country (with its
inhabitants) for assisting to dismember the union.
" Second. I perceive that among its objects was the present secretary
of the territory, a Mr. Griswold, and a direct attack on him by one of
the prime movers strengthens this idea ; he has stood aloof from them
with a cautious but not offensive reserve ; yet the distance he appears
to keep is alarming to them, and his opportunities in his situation are
such as to disconcert them very much, especially as the best and
worthiest men here place confidence in him; and if the design of
dismembering the union should unfold itself further, he might be a
serious obstacle to their designs ; besides it is his duty to act as gover-
nor under particular emergencies, and if there should be any miscon-
duct in any officer towards the union however high we confide in his
arresting him. A young man of the name of Watson from Boston
arrived here soon after the Governor in June. He declared that he
came to be Secretary of the territory, and that his business here was
that and waited here for that alone.
"Another curious fact. After Judge Woodward found what the
grand jury had done with his Bill, and that they were about to transmit
their remonstrance, he fell upon the expedient of summoning as Colonel
•1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 295
of the first Regt. of militia, two delegates from each militia company,
to meet him in convention, to take into consideration (as he expressed
it in his circular) " the state of public affairs " ; it is supposed for the
purpose of obtaining somebody to recommend his bill. The convention
is to be held a few days hence, but he will effect nothing except morti-
fication to himself. Indeed he has fairly out-intrigued himself in this
territory, on the bench and in the legislative board where it is too true
[he] is both ridiculous and odious. The Citizens at a large and respec-
table meeting lately voted that he ought to be impeached and removed.
How far they will proceed with this I know not, but a committee
has been appointed to address Congress on the subject.
" The Governor has shown a disposition to retract, so far as he has
had concern in the intrigues and practices now so much condemned by
the citizens ; which has to appearance created a breach between him
and the judge.
11 If there be a design on foot to dismember the Union there are many
of us here ready to resist and with means to expose and defeat it, with
proper precautions. Knowing your fidelity and honor, I leave to you
to make the proper use of the information I communicate, and what
ought and what ought not to be published."
Deer. 26, 1806
Since the receipt of the above a debilitating rather than a serious
indisposition prevented me from closing and forwarding the above.
Another letter from the same quarter of the five Novr. encloses an
extraordinary letter addressed to the Legislative Board by Judge
Woodward. As it does not relate so much to general as to local
affairs, and is a most extravagant and intemperate act for a man in
such a station,, I do not send a copy unless it should be of any use.
The copy I have is authenticated by Peter Anderson, Secy, of the
Govr and Judges.
I took the liberty of suggesting in the preceding sheet the feelings
and wishes of your warmest friends, and of the soundest principles,
concerning the Militia; the policy even were it only to keep the militia
spirit awake and the people conscious of their own rights and importance,
the declarations of men in the regular military service, too plainly in-
dicate the danger from large military establishments ; men educated in a
profession wish to exercise it — and thank God our country and policy
are not such as is calculated to promote standing armies or war ; an
organization of the state contingent would at least in this state produce
the most salutary effects. That I do not look to anything personal
(except trouble and expense) is obvious because as Colonel of the best
regiment in the State, I am as high as I could go under the present
reign, and should rather prefer to command my company than my
296 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
regiment if it were not for the political use that my submitting to the
drudgery of acting as colonel and even as adjutant and sergeant major
of the corps. The duty however gives me better ideas of matters which
I find useful as an Editor.
I could wish that the chief of the conspiracy could be seized, with
20 men whom I could select, and properly provided with each a good
horse and close arms, I think I could bring him to Washington, and
would cheerfully undertake it.
As the tone I have maintained in the Aurora on the Non Importa-
tion law and British affairs, may not be understood as I conceive and
intend them, I think it incumbent on me to state the principles upon
which I act. In the first place I am convinced in my soul that noth-
ing is to be expected by the U. S. from G. Britain on the score of.
justice or right. That all must be the effect of her fears, her interests,
or her dangers.
This alone would be sufficient ; but the conduct of all the agents
(particularly of Bond here) is so gross and indecorous, that the popular
Scourge cannot be too severely laid upon him. The agents and emis-
saries take their tone from these official men. And it is due to the
country that their deceptious course independent of their virulence
against the government, should be repelled. I feel some gratification
in perceiving the effect produced by the incessant fire I have kept upon
them during my recent indisposition.
On the other hand a strong motive with me is to afford the govern-
ment a countervailing argument against the complaints which the min-
ister of France may make (knowing what his master made before
against the Aurora) I disdain the idea of the tyrant, who has super-
seded by his power the liberty of France ; but as he is upon equal terms
with the combined powers, as a politician he must be judged on equal
terms with them. Beside if there could be any danger from him, and
there may be at least inconvenience and much evil use made of any
complaint which he might make, I have conceived it to be my duty
seeing that the Aurora has considerable repute, to take up the subject
in such a way as shall without committing a single principle of national
honor or right, give at least so much assurance as a single Gazette can
give that the abuse of France and its chief is not the act either of the
administration nor the sentiment of the people. The same sentiment
induced me to dwell on the Non Importation act, and to disapprove of
its repeal or suspension — because it might be fairly pleaded that the
paper was not under the influence of the administration. These ex-
planations I hold to be due to you, and to myself. In any mode that
I can serve my country I am at your service, because I am sure that
you would not suspect me of being an hunter of office, but one who
really feels the true glory of being a freeman and the duty which every
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 297
man owes to devote his faculties to the service of his country, and his
life if the exigency calls for the sacrifice. This is my sentiment, and
it is that in which I have educated my children. I am, &c.
To Jefferson}
Respected Sir, — The following is a copy of an anonymous com-
munication made to me, which has since produced a correspondence with
the writer, and a disclosure of the Cypher, therein alluded to, a copy of
which I also subjoin.
[Copy]
" Mr. Duane, — In addition to the facts stated in your paper of this
morning, you may add the following if you think proper.
" That in the mouth of July last, a confidential friend of Colonel
Burr, left with some persons (whom he thought his dupes) the Key in
Cyphers to write him ; that the letters were directed to D 1 . Clarke,
Esq 1 "., at N. Orleans.
" The aforesaid Key is in my possession, should you wish to see it,
it shall be communicated confidentially, as well as the true and genuine
plan of the Great Colonel which is the same in effect as was published
by you this morning.
" Yours truly,
" A Democrat and Friend
" 10th Jany> [1807] »
After certain notifications and some few private notes in reply con-
taining no additional public matter, the Copy of the Key was left at my
house, a copy of which I inclose on a separate paper.
I have been informed from very creditable authority that Dr. Boll-
man, is one of the agents of Mr. Burr at Orleans.
Mr. Burr I am told had made application to a celebrated French
Engineer, who lives (or lately lived) at Baltimore, he was formerly
the Count La Marc, or Lemarque, and is known now by the name of
Godefroy.
I am also told that some young men from this city have started
within a week, to join in the treason ; one of them is named Fries, son
of the store-keeper corner of Market and Third, formerly the old gaol ;
the names of the other young men I have not yet learned ; though they
are all allowed to be federalists.
On the paper annexed to the Key, I send copies of two letters that
in my mind merit very serious attention. — The source from whence
they are derived is unquestionable.
i Jeff. MSS.
38
298 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Our State legislature exhibits a melancholy scene of governmental
intrigue. — Indeed Mr. McKean has completely succeeded in destroy-
ing poor Sam 1 . Bryan, who is now in this city with a numerous and
young family, and I believe not 50 dollars in the world; his furniture
is left to pay his rent at Lancaster ; and his whole offence constancy
and principle, integrity in discharge of his duty, and an invincible
fidelity to the principles of the Revolution.
Mr. Steele who was the Republican Candidate was thrown out by an
intrigue of the most scandalous nature. He is under a prosecution at
the suit of the Governor for 50,000 dollars damages ; for signing an
address of the members of the Legislature, recommending S. Snyder
as the Governmental Candidate. Deplorable to say the intrigues of
the Governor's partisans succeeded in setting up the author of the
address, who was not prosecuted, against Mr. Steele, who only signed
it : and it was to defeat this odious intrigue that Mr. Gregg owes his
election. These are painful occurrences to men who devote their lives
and indeed their peace and comfort to sustain the cause of liberty &
virtue; they are afflicting & discouraging; to see men whom we
deemed virtuous only a few weeks ago, by their avarice of office put-
ting the whole interests of a state at hazard, and endangering the
cause of republicanism by destroying confidence among brethren and
exciting the Exultation of the wily and unprincipled adversary parties.
I trust you will excuse my freedom in thus writing to you, in the
present troublous times ; but as the countenance you have occasionally
given to the faithful men of the state has considerably sustained good
principles, so people here still look to you to counteract when occasion
honorably offers, the fatal effects of the existing administration of the
State. I do not write for any answer, nor wish to trouble you with
writing one. It will be sufficiently grateful to me, if I contribute by
my efforts any useful service, or afford you a satisfactory evidence. of a
very warm and sincere heart.
Yours faithfully.
To Madison.
Philadelphia, May 1, 1807
Sir, — I am induced to apply to you on the present occasion by an
incidental hint which fell in conversation from a very intelligent gentle-
man in this city, who enquiring the progress of my edition of D r
Franklin's works, suggested that I ought to make application for liberty
to copy such articles as might be deemed of value of D r Franklin's
political productions while he was abroad, and that there were such in
the Department of State. As I had not before conceived that idea,
■
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 299
and as I cannot now say whether it is well founded or not, I have
thought it proper to intimate a wish to you, in this respectful form, to
be permitted to transcribe any papers of D r Franklin's that may be so
deposited, and which it may not be improper to publish. I should
have made this application loug since, had I not expected to have been
in Washington long before ; nor shall I expect any answer at present,
as I propose waiting on you personally for the purpose, on my way to
Richmond about the 20th of the present month. I have not thought it
proper to trouble the President on the subject, concluding that you
would if necessary consult him.
I see by the papers that Capt. M Gregor's commission as consul at
S* Croix had not been received some time ago — I forwarded it to M r
Prom a Danish Merchant at S* Croix, who is the husband [of] my
wife's sister, and make no doubt of its safe delivery — I thought it
proper to mention this lest it should be supposed I had omitted to
send it.
I am Sir With respect Your obed 1 Ser*
W m DUANE
To Jefferson. 1
Wednesday morning, July 1, 1807
Respected Sir, — I left late last night in the hands of your servant
two letters from Richmond entrusted to me to be delivered to you, the
lateness of the hour deprived me of the pleasure of delivering them in
person ; and as I have no business that would justify my occupying
your time, I have preferred dropping this note for you, with a tender
of my services in any situation which my humble talents may appear
to you useful in the present crisis of affairs, when zeal, fidelity and
intelligence may perhaps be required. The sense of the country on
the recent outrage, is such as your most earnest wishes could look for
under such circumstances, and I am persuaded that the more prompt,
decisive and marked by resolution and confidence in the people, the
more will your honor and the safety of the country be promoted and
secured. The Whigs of your native State are as full of zeal as in any
period of the Revolution. The town meeting at Richmond was by
much the most respectable I have seen on any such occasion, and their
spirit was happily contrasted by the puny efforts of Mr. Feuton Mercer
and young Gamble, to take away from the energy of the proceedings
there ; these two young men and the son of Chief Justice Marshall
formed the whole of the minority.
A letter from my son of the 26th ult. met me here, and contains the
following remarkable paragraph.
1 Jeff. MSS.
300 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
" There is a correspondence now going on between Jonathan Dayton
and John Marshall, Chief Justice — and between Jonathan Dayton and
Yrujo — Dayton tries to feign a handwriting different from his own,
but without effect. This may be relied on."
Mr. John Morgan formerly Adjutant General in Jersey, but now of
Washington, Penna, arrived in this city in the same stage with me, the
evidence of that gentleman, his father and brother is spoken of as very
honorable to them and important to the public.
It was said when I left Richmond that Mr. Burr had been tamper-
ing with the guard over him ; Major Scott in my hearing directed an
additional sentinel.
Genl. Wilkinson told me he would leave Richmond on Wednesday,
(this day) for Washington.
Mr. Graham whom I met at Dumfries desired me to present his
respects, he meant to come on with Wilkinson.
Any commands you may have for me of any kind it will afford me
particular satisfaction to attend to. I am, &c. »
To Jefferson}
Phila. July 8, 1807
Respected Sir, — Whatever may be the ultimate issue of the
violence already committed by the British, I respectfully submit if
it would not be expedient to make immediate arrangements for the
establishment of Telegraphs such as would render the communication
between the extremes of the union and the principal points on the sea-
board, and the seat of government prompt and clear.
The expense of such an establishment would be found on inquiry
not very great, and the machinery might be constructed upon principles
so simple as to convey any species of Information with accuracy. The
advantages of such an establishment in the event of offensive operations
on different points of our coasts, I need not point out to you. Permit
me to suggest that the most simple would be the system of numerical
signs, which might be so contrived as to refer to a numbered vocabu-
lary or Dictionary prepared for the purpose. The names of places
persons and things not usually found in Dictionaries might be added in
the key book. Or an ordinary pocket Dictionary might be first pre-
pared by scoring out such words as were not essential for the purpose
and numbering the words in progression. From such a system all the
advantages of publicity or secrecy might be preserved at discretion,
either by placing the key only at the point of intelligence and in the
possession of such persons as were in the confidence of Govert. This
idea was suggested to me by the famous cypher of Burr.
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 301
Will you with your usual goodness permit me to offer a few sugges-
tions, which, tho' I make no doubt some of them may be already more
completely conceived and unfolded by other and abler hands, will not
I hope be inexcusable from me, for their intention is good.
If the British persist in making war on us it will be perhaps prin-
cipally by commercial depredation, secondly by their old system of
conflagration and outrage on the seaboard, and thirdly by carrying into
effect those designs which were conceived and prepared to be carried
into execution when the sudden conclusion of the peace of Amiens stopt
the enterprise, but out of which have since arisen the Expeditions of
Miranda and Burr.
I believe it is well understood that the two armaments which were
cotemporaneous with the French Louisiana expedition formed in the
ports of Holland were intended for South America and Florida. It is
very probable that the project against the latter was intended to be
affected had Burr succeeded at N. Orleans. In the event of their
determination upon a war Florida will certainly become an object to
them both of political advantage in relation to the W. Indies and of
annoyance to U. S. Under the plausible appearance of only attacking
Spain, they may expect to quiet their adherents in the U. States ; and
the little difficulty which they would find in occupying St. Augustine or
Pensacola would afford to the disaffected adherents of Burr in that
quarter a temptation too flattering for men disgraced and dishonored
as they must be not to procure for the British many adherents. It is
a certain fact that Elizabeth the daughter of the President of Princeton
College, did not very long ago declare at New Orleans, in words to
this effect, to a gentleman in a company where several were present —
" Damn ye ! you have destroyed Burr, but not the principle, and you
will suffer in less than two years for your present conduct : damn ye !
fifty of you should have been assassinated ! " " Who minds what a
woman says ! " replied the gentleman. " Yet I wonder your husband
don't teach you more discretion."
The Princeton Amazon replied. " If they durst speak you would
have harder things from them."
My second son who I sent by Pittsburg in the track of these gentry and
returned here on Friday in the Spanish Lady, says that much disaffec-
tion prevails there still. Some of the intrenchments established by
Wilkinson are leveled. And many speak of the future realization of
what has miscarried by vigilance of government and the attachment
of the people. Circumstances such as the conversation of this warlike
lady cannot arise from shallow sources ; the terms indicate much more
than the sentiment reveals. The occupation of Florida would in a
great measure lead to the loss of Louisiana, at least to render its settle-
ment more remote and precarious ; further reflections I need not offer,
302 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
because if my premises are at all plausible or likely to be matters of
action, the results are easily foreseen. Under any circumstances of war,
whether Florida should be attempted or not, attacks real or feigned
would be made on various parts of the coast ; the eastern coasts would
be attempted if Florida was the object, and the Hudson, < Delaware
and Chesapeake would be alarmed to direct attention from Florida.
These reasonings are founded on the reality of an intended and active
war. Permit me to continue the tram of my thoughts on the subject.
Experience shows that offensive operations conducted with vigor and
spirit are more effective than measures merely defensive. The spirit
and enterprise of the American character are peculiarly fitted for offen-
sive enterprises. To guard ourselves the best principle of defence would
be prompt and multiplied enterprises against them. All their points
are vulnerable. The employment of any force we should chuse against
them out of our own territory would not weaken us. Two or three
bold enterprises might add to our resources, and even an expedition
that should but be partially executed against them, would be fatal in
its measure according to the nature of the position attacked. Their
commerce, their credit, the popularity of their governmental agents
would all be shaken, and their being forced to act on the defensive
would be to us preservation.
There are four points at which the British might be attacked with
peculiar advantage to us and disadvantage to them. And the attack
of some of them would be essentially a part of our defensive system.
Canada would be necessarily attacked to protect us from the British
emissaries and the resources of war supplied by them to the Indian
tribes. The capture of Halifax would be essential to deprive their
fleet of a harbor. Expeditions thither could not be overlooked nor
omitted, and the materials for the seizure of both would require little
more than the breath of government to create them. Two other ex-
peditions ought at least to be prepared, and if not carried at once into
effect might be avowed as intended. One against Newfoundland and
another against Jamaica. The former would not require 4,000 men.
The latter would require 20,000 and a reserve of 10,000. The ex-
pense, and the difficulties of the attack on Jamaica I am perfectly
aware of ; but I am also aware of the magnitude of the consequences
which would result from an attack upon Jamaica. Its commercial con-
sequence and the political influence of that commerce. Its being the
only island which can subsist itself during a war. These are consider-
ations that ought to tempt enterprise to surmount difficulties. The best
mode of conducting such an expedition, the points of descent, the means
to prepare it, and the measures to insure its accomplishment, would
necessarily better result of inquiries and considerations more experienced
than I presume to be. But I cannot be mistaken I think in the mo-
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DTJANE. 303
mentous influence which the holdness of the idea of attacking Jamaica
would produce on the Royal Exchange and in the Cabinet of George III.
I believe the very menace would be better than a battle of Trafalgar
and as decisive in its degree as the battles of Austerlitz or Jena.
An actual war would of necessity give us the aid of the navies of
France and Spain. Jamaica could be best attacked from Porto Rica
or from Cuba or from both. The French under Bellecombe took
Newfoundland with 400 men in the year 1762; 4,000 provincials re-
took the year after, without more than a dozen lives lost ; occupation
would be conquest, and the effect on the British Fisheries, I need not
describe to you who have written with so much intelligence on the
subject. If there is war will it not be essential to have a camp at
Saratoga or on the Lake Champlaine ? And to keep a very vigilant
eye on the Upper Canadians ; to repair or raise new defences at
Detroit and Niagara.
I have thrown these hasty reflections together in perfect assurance
that they will meet a favorable reception. Every man owes to the
Society of which he is a member the tribute of his services ; if my ideas
are not such as better judgments would approve or act upon, I have
the satisfaction of knowing they are fairly intended and will be so
received, I am, &c.
There is an English officer of the name of Connolly in this neighbor-
hood. His deportment and other circumstances induce me to think he
is on some mission. Lefevre an Irishman who you may recollect con-
cerned in the Yazoo is constantly with him. They are both at Bristol
at present. I have no opinion of Lefevre.
This letter is not written to obtain an answer, but merely to offer
the ideas it contains for consideration. I shall take the liberty some
day this week of offering you some observations on the present condi-
tion of Fort Mifflin.
To Jefferson. 1
Phila. Oct. 16, 1807
Respected Sir, — I have just received yours of the 14th and shall
attend to the matters noted in it.
I have laid apart for you a copy of Jarrold's animadversions by way
of answer to Malthus, in which my side of the question is taken against
Malthus with much ability, tho' I think he has left a great deal unsaid.
The conversations on chemistry, English Edit. I fear cannot be had.
Cumberland I think may.
Macmahon's Book and the Elements of Botany I can also get, and
shall carry them on with me at the close of the next week.
i Jeff. MSS.
304 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Our election in the city has been a very ardent one. My friends
during my absence at Richmond put me up as Senator for the State,
and this brought out the whole Tory progeny. We have had 800
votes more given in than at any former Election in this city, and altho'
there were more votes for me than were ever given for any member of
Congress of the same politics, Swanwick, Clay, Jones, or McClenachan,
yet they polled 500 ahead ; no doubt there was enormous fraud, but
there was also unprecedented exertion. As is often the case, tho' I
had no knowledge of my own nomination, and was adverse to being
elected, and tho' to be elected would have been most ruinous to my per-
sonal affairs, the anger and irritation has been such, that hundreds now
blame me as the cause of failure for suffering my name to be run.
This singular direction of popular mistake affords me an opportunity
that I have long looked for of making an effort to retire from politics
altogether, and to devote the remainder of my time and capacity to
the concerns of my growing family. This I mean to do in such a way
as to avoid a false eclat and to still preserve the utility of the Aurora.
My son whose competence to the duty has been tried will go on in the
same track, and whenever my habits propel me to politics of course I
will not restrain my feelings nor my exertions. Should war, or any
serious exigency, demand my humble talents, they are as ever at your
command. In the event of peace I must endeavor by industry to dis-
charge the heavy encumbrances of debt which I incurred in supporting
the cause of my country, which I have but partially discharged for a
few years past, and the interest of which alone has been a dead weight
upon my industry. I think it due to the kind and constant good will
and friendship with which you have honored me so uniformly and so
long to state these my feelings and purposes to you, lest misrepresenta-
tion should give another hue to my conduct or pursuits when they
become known.
A person called on me this day stating that an armed British ship
had met an American coasting vessel or pilot boat, and after abusing
those on board the American vessel, delivered a letter for the British
Ambassador. This letter he put into my hands under an impression
that to have received it was illegal, and confiding that I would advise
him what was best to do. I advised him to forward it to the Presi-
dent, which he authorized me to do, and I have accordingly put it
under a cover, for you. It goes by the same mail as this. I don't
know where Mr. Erskine is, but I suppose at Washington.
To Jefferson. 1
(Received Dec. 5th, 1807)
Respected Sir, — By the mail which carries this I have taken the
liberty of sending you a copy of the first number of the Military library,
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 305
a compilation of my own ; it is my purpose to collect all that is to be
had in the best books and to give them such a form as the first number
exhibits, which may lead judicious men to inquire and think, and in-
form those who are uninformed. I have obtained thro' Genl. Dear-
borne's kindness the use of several books from the War Office Library,
and particularly the invaluable but prolix work of Guibert, the whole
substance of which I mean to comprehend in my work. I have the
French system translated making about 700 manuscript pages, to
which will be added perspicuous diagrams of all the modern move-
ments. It will be seen that from the price of this number, I have not
looked so much to profit as to public utility, and I persuade myself that
the circulation of such a work would be of very great use. I have
conversed much with Genl. Wilkinson on the subject, and meet his
ideas as far as I was competent to discourse with a man of practical
experience.
I propose preparing as part of my work a Manuel for American
militia, the object of which is to supply what is wanted in Steuben's
little tract; and to accommodate it to the use of every description of
troops, Infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and to add to it some ideas of
combination of movement of the various kinds of force. I explain
myself to you with the same frankness and unreserve that your uniform
kindness has encouraged me always to do, perhaps it would appear
upon consideration that this work would be worth recommending to
such militia officers as are in Congress, for there is no work on military
affairs extant which communicates any consistent information on more
than one branch of service ; and a library of various books contains
so much extraneous matter and besides the books are both scarce and
expensive, that it is scarcely possible to collect them for several years.
Law suits have detained me here and will detain me till at least after
the 20th instant, so that I shall not have the pleasure of delivering the
books you ordered till the first week in January. Mr. Barton's botani-
cal book is not to be had in sheets. Cumberland's work is to have a
second volume ; there is no English edition to be had here but in
quarto, which I did not take, knowing that you preferred 8vos.
Neither is there an English copy of Mrs. Bryan's Chemical Conver-
sations to be had.
Col. Burr was to sail this day for Richmond. I have not yet heard
that he is gone ; he was arrested here on Tuesday at night at the suit
I believe of Alexcmder Henry, whom you may remember as notorious
jobber in the 8 per cent loan ; it was ten o'clock at night before he
obtained bail. I have not been able to learn who were his sureties.
We are in a bad way here as to our militia. The uniform corps will
not serve under McKean. He has ordered them to be called out in
companies, to annoy them ; and as no law authorizes they will not I
306 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
much fear obey him ; the company I commanded formerly, now com-
manded by Mr. Graves, will however by my advice turn out ; but
Rush and some others say they will not, unless under your authority.
I know how many delicate and unpleasant considerations might arise
from these dispositions all flowing from the best and most honorable
motives; but in the manner that they have been treated by McKean,
the contumelious dismission of their commandant of the Legion and a
variety of vexations that his malignant temper and the malignant dis-
positions of his advisers have prompted, renders it a matter more
unpleasant than surprising. As soon as I heard of it I waited on some
of the officers, and endeavored to induce them to turn out. Capt.
Greaves alone I could prevail upon ; but they have consented to call
on the adjutant Genl. and converse with him. The argument they use
by the bye is different from the true one. They say they are willing
to turn out with their own officers, not with officers of McKean's nomi-
nation, in whom they could have no confidence. They are willing to
take their turn in the ordinary draft as other militia even under
McKean, but as the law does not oblige them to turn out as Volunteer
corps and the President has not accepted their services, they will abide
by the law. They add however that they are not ready to go from
home and leave men behind them who are the deadly enemies of the
Government, who are exempted from service & enjoy their property
under a government for which they will not fight, and whose friends
they would destroy. These matters are yet not publicly known, and
no efforts shall be untried to prevent bad effects. I am, &c.
Eseyibeck to Duane. 1
City of Washington, Jan: the 11th, 1808.
Mr. Duane will oblige me to have the following Advertisement in-
certed in your usefull Paper, and send the Acc c to Mr. Waitman your
Agent and I will pay him.
Advertisement.
There is a curious old man near the Treasury Office in the City of
Washington who served the United States near 15 Years, and he says;
that from his Youth up he studied different foreign Languages, and
now he is in his 57th Year and just finished his Studdies, for he found
out a Language which he calls his own, which has the Power that he
can convey his thoughts as far as the Eye can see, the Ear can hear
and understanding can conceive, a distance of 4 miles in five minutes,
and converse in Cypher with any Person he gives the Key on any Sub-
ject whatever. He thinks and says that if his delegraphical Language
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 307
which can be used by Land and water, would be applyed as a Dele-
graph would have such effect and would answer a very good purpose
in War. He will prove it, and give the Key to the President of the
U. S.-
Will : ESENBECK.
To Jefferson}
Philadelphia, Jan. 12, 1808
Respected Sir, — There may or may not be something in the
matter enclosed. if there is anything useful perhaps it may be ob-
tained better without than with an advertisement, as the subject appears
to me to be of very great importance.
Tho' I think the Dictionary Telegraph, with signs by numbers refer-
ring to the Words in the Dict'y, the most perfect system that can be
devised.
With the utmost respect.
To Jefferson.
Philadelphia, 17 January, 1808
Respected Sir, — I think it my duty to enclose the letter herewith
sent- I have cut the name of the person and his place of residence out,
only in obedience to an injunction made to me repeatedly not to let his
name be known as my correspondent.
He is a man of unquestionable integrity, and is sufficiently wealthy
to be above all temptations to forfeit his character for worldly motives ;
he has sent collections of Books to be deposited in our public libraries,
at his own expence, and became my correspondent wholly on account
of his opinion of the Aurora, and the attachment which he feels towards
your political fame and measures. I thought it necessary to say thus
much of the writer, whose name I would give to you alone, because I
am sure he would not object, but I do not send it, to guard against any
accidents that might befal it in the way to you.
I have procured all the information practicable concerning the mine
of Zinc on Perkiomen (22 miles from this city) which with Specimens
of the ores, I shall give to Capt. C. Irvine, to forward to the Sec y at
War. I need not urge to you the value of Zinc, if a large quantity of
brass artillery are to be cast.
There is no information of any kind here worth troubling you with.
I am, &c.
i Jeff. MSS.
308 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
To Jefferson}
Philadelphia, Jan. 29, 1808.
Respected Sir, — The letter enclosed has just come to my hands ;
I have no acquaintance with the Gentleman who writes it, but have had,
as he appears to know, received a number of communications more
voluminous, but not so concise as this ; all of them concur in making
representations as strong and some even stronger than the enclosed.
That there has been a most nefarious scheme of speculation carried on
there appears to me beyond doubt. I think it my duty to send this
letter, aware at the same time that much must depend on the character
of the accuser and his motives : but there is certainly a very general
concurrence in his opinions.
Judge Woodward has written me a letter intimating a design to reply
to a series of papers on the concerns of Michigan which will give the
other side of the question.
Mr. Hervey's letter is of course communicated in confidence.
I am with affectionate respect
To Madison.
Phi a Feb. 8, 1808
Sir, — I expected before this time to have found some safe hand to
transmit the Volume of papers by but have been until this day
unsuccessful, a Gentleman who sets out in a day or two promises to
take it under charge in his trunk ; I have it for the purpose safely
packed up.
I should have sent it before had I not meditated going to Washing-
ton myself, I find however that I can render more public service here
than I could to myself at Washington, and have for the present
abandoned the idea of going down ; meantime, if there is any mode in
which I can render public service, or if I by any mistaken ideas of
facts (for I have no guides or advices but my own judgment) I shall be
very happy to be informed or corrected, so as to render service and to
avoid doing any disservice ; however I know enough of the British
Government and nation, to understand them pretty well, and the con-
duct they have pursued is too much in character to admit of any second
opinion upon rational grounds. This much I think it fit to say on
public matters.
Mr. John Bioren and myself have agreed to propose the printing of
an Edition of the Laws of the U States in a neat form, perfectly corre-
sponding with the ideas of an index and arrangement which you were
pleased to mention to me about two years ago — 1 shall send you a
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 309
copy of a Volume of Laws as a Specimen of the manner and Execu-
tion of the whole, and a specification of the terms and other particulars.
I have associated with Mr Bioren on account of his excellence as a
printer and because it would enable me to undertake business which
my activity in the best interests of the country has hitherto prevented,
rather than promoted as might in justice have been expected. I only
mention this subject now, and consider this only as a personal note, in
order that when I send the book the circumstance may not appear pre-
cipitate— I require no answer
I am Sir with great Respect
Your obed' Ser*
W m DUANE
To Madison.
Phil a Feb. 20, 1808
Sir, — The enclosed information I conceive to be better disposed of
in the Department of State than in a newspaper — and therefore trans-
mit it.
1 respectfully suggest that as the communicator did not perhaps ex-
pect to be thus before the Executive Department that in relation to
him, to protect him from vengeance of Speculators, the letter be used
only as in confidence.
I have the honor to be
Your obed Ser'
W m DlJANE
James Madison Esq Sec 1 ? of State
To Jefferson. 1
Phila. (Sunday) March 20th, 1808
Respected Sir, — Capt. Norris' papers are in my hands, and should
have been forwarded last week, had I not been (as I have been for six
weeks past) harrassed by various law suits ; 2 I am this day released to
rest, but tomorrow my suit, or rather Gouverneur Morris's suit against
me comes on. It begun on Thursday and may be expected to end
tomorrow; I have had no counsel hitherto, but have been induced to
call in Joseph Hopkinson, with a view to introduce a copy of Mr.
Stevenson de Berkenrode's letter from Berlin in 1795, which upon
common law principles of evidence they would not let me even read.
i Jeff. MSS.
2 " The storm beats hard against me here still. Last week and this Law,
Law, Law. On Wednesday I am to be tried on a libel suit of Yrujo's. Thurs-
day for a conspiracy to prevail upon Govr. McKean to commission a man sheriff
duly elected. The object is to keep me from Lancaster and to ruin my affairs —
on which subjects I should take the liberty of saying more if you were a private
citizen." Duane to Jefferson, 29 February, 1808.
310 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
The libel is in these words. " Whence did Mr. Gouverneur Morris
draw his compensation for his services at Berlin after his dismission
from the embassy to France for carrying on an illicit correspondence."
The words in italic are the libel.
I beg pardon for mentioning these things, but I have this further
motive in doing it, that it will account for the deficiency of discussion
and original matter generally for some time past. My mind has been
wholly engrossed by these persecuting politicians, whose enmity against
me is as acute and venomous at this moment, as at any former period.
As soon as this suit is closed, I shall be free from law trammels till
June ; on Tuesday or Wednesday I shall put Mr. Norris's papers in
order and forward them; I have advised him to obtain the affidavits
from such persons as are at New York, and he has set about it.
The poor venerable man has lost the use of his left arm and the fingers
are drawn in a cluster by the contraction of the sinews from the blows
he received in defending his head and body against the cruel ruffians.
He has been a revolutionary man, and was it seems very active in his
youth against the British ; his principles and language have never
varied; and his character is that he always speaks the truth; among
seafaring people, he is very well known under this character • and it
seems the British officer was not ignorant of it, since he paid him for
country sake.
The Randolphian Rescript has produced much the same effect as
Timothy Pickering's. It has fixed men who were wavering and de-
termined many to act in opposition to its dictates, who very possibly
might have acted differently. Excuse me with your usual kindness.
Ever affectionately & respectfully yours.
To Jefferson. 1
Phila. Aug. 9, 1808
Respected Sir, — The inclosed letter contains information of a na-
ture that ought not to be unknown to the Executive, and I therefore
inclose it.
The subject to which it relates induces me also to state, that much
abuse of the Embargo has been committed in this port; I communicated
to the Custom house information last week, of provisions and other
articles put on board a vessel at one of our wharves ; and instances
have been frequent and notorious. The inability of Genl. Shee for a
long time past, to give energy to the office ; and the indecent hostility
of Mr. Graaf the deputy Collector to the general administration and its
public policy have combined to relax the due force of the law in a
manner that is inconceivable unless on the scene of action. Indeed the
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTEES OF WILLIAM DTJANE. 311
Custom house is proverbially a den of disorganization and has been
constantly one of the most fatal means of distraction and division be-
tween the friends of the public policy, and the professed friends. The
appointment of a firm and upright character as the successor of Gen.
Shee will not only be essential to the support of the public policy and
law, but will in the effect of the choice greatly influence the Elections
in this district, which if something is not done by discountenancing those
officers of the government of the U. S. who foment distraction, and
selecting persons who will prefer public duty to all secret influence of
vicious individuals, if some thing of this nature does not occur, we shall
be saddled with three malignant Federalists, Geo. Latimer, Jos. Hemphill,
and Peter A. Brown, for Congress. I do not undertake to name any
person as suited to succeed Gen. Shee, because it might seem to be a
wish to promote some individual rather than the public interest that
influenced these remarks. Much caution and correct information from
sources to be relied on, are certainly requisite to guard against interested
representations, and the movements of the enemies of administration at
our Coffee houses.
In the State we shall carry our Presidential ticket without hazard,
altho' I understand S. Maclay is coming forth with a Phillipic against
Mr. Madison ; but he has already committed political suicide, and what
he may do can be only barely offensive without being destructive. I
think it an act of friendship to my friend Leiper, who is one of the
Securities for the Marshal of this district, to apprise you that I fear
Mr. Leiper may suffer by being bail. Smith has purchased lands and
built a kind of palace that cost about 18 to 20,000 $. The property
is covered by the name of Rebecca Robins the sister of Smith's wife,
who it is well known had, no more than 500 £ currency her portion.
As this evil must grow with time, and as I have spoken and others have
spoken to Mr. L. who appears at a loss what to do, I think it but justice
to apprize you of it, so that Mr. L. may at least take steps to secure
himself. I fear too, that there is a shipping concern in which the same
person with his son-in-law a Mr. Dennis have been engaged, may tend
to increase a future involvement, as Dennis has been very lately a bank-
rupt, and has sent a vessel under an Orleans clearance to Antigua, and
I am told the vessel has returned new painted and under another name.
I mention these particulars only to shew the extreme precariousness of
the security.
There are many things which occur here that ought to be known,
but I am apprehensive of being too troublesome to you.
Ever respected sir, &c.
312 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
To R. C. Weightman.
Phil a Dec 20, 1808
D R Roger, — By Samuel Carswell, Esqr of this city, who goes on
business to Washington, I send you a volume of the Laws of Pennsyl-
vania, which I wish you to present without delay to the Secretary of
State, and signify to him that it is your intention to propose to him the
printing of an Edition of the Laws of the U. S. in that manner, or on
a size to correspond with Tucker's Blackstone, and with such an Index
as he suggested two or three years ago in a conversation with me, the
Index is in fact already compleated, in the manner of that executed for
the Pennsylvania volume accompanying, and will be continued ; it is
contemplated to give to the edition double numerical references ; that
is to say as this edition would comprise in one page nearly two of the
existing Edition ; the marginal numbers of the former editions published
by Authority would be marked on the margin, opposite the line of this
new editon which begun each page in the old ; so that reference could
be made by this comprehensive Edition to the old Octavos from the
beginning of the Fed 1 Government.
I enclose you the Rough Sketch made about three years ago, be-
tween Bioren and myself, and tho' his name may or may not appear
he would be an equal sharer in it for in fact the Indexes have been
procured and Executed at his Expence already.
You will take a copy of the Rough Sketch for your own information,
and you may if you find it expedient exhibit that as well as this letter,
for I wish to have no dealing in which there is reserve. You will be
able better to judge of the prospect of success in such an application
than I can., and it is absolutely expedient that I do something to get
myself out of the hands of the Banks here, who worry me every day, a
situation in which I never should have been placed were it not for the
Washington Establishment, from the involvement of which I have never
yet completely extricated myself.
If you do not see the business as clear as you should require, write by
Post without delay — but take care of the book and present it at least
with an intimation of what it is sent for.
I wish you would read my last letter to you over again — you seem
to mistake in the extreme what I wrote [illegible] Yrs.
To Jefferson. 1
(Private) Jan. 23, 1809
Sir, — The present state of public affairs and the events which in
one shape or another must arise out of it, calls for the exercise of all
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 313
your sagacity and resolution. You have« stood the storm of the Revo-
lution and passed through it with solid glory. You have sustained the
shocks of a contemplated revolution more insidious, but not less menac-
ing, and carried the national vessel safe through unexampled vicissi-
tudes. There is a time when it would be better to perish than survive
the ruins of one's country ; and I very seriously apprehend, that unless
some measures be speedily adopted which may fix the national senti-
ment, that there will be a struggle of a most serious nature.
Impressions such as these alone could tempt me to intrude thus upon
you, but I conceive it to be a duty of affection, to lay my suggestions
before you, and trust confidently to your wisdom to decide whether I
am mistaken in my apprehensions or in the mode which I venture to
suggest as an immediate remedy. My means of information no doubt
are partial, but such as they are, they are formed with as dispassionate
a mind and with as earnest a purpose to ascertain true reports as can
be found in the community. If I am mistaken, then it is my judg-
ment, and my intention will be my excuse.
I think the time is now come to ask and act upon this question.
What is the best means of preserving the fruits of the Revolution from
wreck ?
I believe that the British government have brought it to this issue and
are determined to put our means to the test. I believe they have system-
atized conspiracy in the bosom of the land, and have lavished and laid
up fuel for a conflagration. 1 believe that were there not a powerful
back, that the treasonable and outrageous proceedings which have
already taken place, would never have been begun ; and I am persuaded
that forbearance has only taught them to calculate upon perfect im-
punity. The resources which they have provided, the materials with
which they act, the manner of the action, indicate a determination to
go to the most desperate lengths, and unless something be done, they
will shake this continent to its foundation. No doubt the case is sur-
rounded with difficulties — but it is for that very reason that it should
be met with resolution ; the very impunity with which outrage pro-
gresses, is a sure aliment and aid to its progress.
Permit me to place the case before you with a view to its operation
in society. Every man of observation knows the fact, that public dis-
cussion, argument, and reasoning upon measures of policy, are not
addressed to the intelligent and the virtuous part of the community ;
neither are they ever addressed to the hearts or heads of the depraved.
There are in every society large masses of men, who never think or
reason ; some who have no capacity for thought ; many whose judg-
ments are too weak to be constant to any fixt ideas; and very many
who assume a mask of moderation or liberality only to cover their dia-
bolical selfishness and depravity; very unfortunately this mixture of
40
314 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
ignorance, imbecility, instability and hypocrisy is very numerous. It
forms perhaps a full third of every society ; and it is to the major part
of this mass that all public discussions are addressed. They in fact make
the majority in all critical times, and are as ready to be thrown
into the balance on one side or the other, according to the mode in
which they are addressed. With those who may be called the innocent
classes of this portion of the people, whenever there appears to be vigor on
one side and moderation on the other, they take the part of moderation,
until the vigorous party become daring ; they then withdraw to watch
the conflict, and to join with whatever party that appears likely to be
triumphant. It is a selfish feeling which governs them ; and as they
are not sufficiently well informed to fix an opinion for themselves, will
go as readily wrong as right according to the impression which is made
upon them. Indeed in such critical times, as there is more zeal and
industry bestowed to produce wrong than to preserve right, the danger
is greater; men in the right calm, confident and unsuspicious rely upon
the virtue which they feel and appropriate similar feelings to others
who have no consciousness of their influence ; and it is on this innocent
part of the community that the hypocritical portion act, and it is from
these hypocrites that the agents of corruption and affliction are selected.
In such a case what are the best means to be pursued for public safety ?
How is the evil to be remedied. How is this innocent class, who ac-
cording to my ideas have little force of mind, little judgment, who are
so easily led wrong as well as right, and to whom wisdom and virtue
are under the necessity of paying the homage of argument ? It is a
painful picture, but it is true, it unhappily is no fanciful feature, it is an
existing being, and may be transformed into a tyger, a lion, or accord-
ing to the regimen a lamb.
Who can forget that has had experience of the Reign of Terror,
when a minority in fact of the whole nation terrified the nation and
silenced even men of virtue. In prosperity they say we forget past
sorrows. The time is now come to awaken the painful recollections
of those days when you could not walk the public streets in security,
when no man's home was safe who was not a minion or a sycophant of
power ; what they accomplished in power the same party will again
accomplish out of power, if some measures are not taken to rescue the
unthinking part of the nation out of the hands of the abandoned and
corrupt. They already have proceeded so far as to set the government
at defiance, openly violate the laws, and call for a dissolution of the
Union. It is sickening to witness the airs of iusolence and haughty
contumely with which the American citizen is daily treated by the
accredited agents of England. Bond had the impudence to tell me to
my teeth that it was a party question that now agitated the Union !
But what is the remedy ? I say first try what the effect will be
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 315
of removing the alimentary poison, which is suffered to infect society.
The poison being removed the body politic has vigor and health. In
any other nation on earth the leaders of the sedition now spread through
the union would long since have been conducted to the dungeon or the
gibbet ; I do not admire such remedies ; thank God they do not belong
to our code of health ; and it is because I wish that they never should,
and that those who are laboring for the gallows should be themselves
protected from their own worst enemies themselves.
But while the benevolence of our institutions interposes no check,
the evil is progressing ; the abandoned and corrupt are left to make
proselytes among the weak and the wicked; the necessities of the times
throw a considerable body of persons, who have no springs of action
but their necessities, into the ranks of discontent ; and if it is suffered
to proceed must inevitably accumulate, with what effects it is difficult
to anticipate.
The remedy which appears to me at this moment preferable to all
others is the suspension of the functions of all the accredited agents of
England, in the most formal manner ; their conduct notoriously calls
for it and justifies it; the suspension of commerce itself would be a
sufficient motive ; but their interference and insolence in our affairs is
so notorious that public sentiment will not only applaud, but it will
itself hold back thousands from falling into the snares of corruption ;
it will have an immediate effect on the nation ; the frieuds of the
Republic are in truth in a state of despondency ; they see the audac-
ity of the British agents every day passed over with impunity ; respect
for the government and laws alone has restrained the people here from
doing great mischief; I have bestowed days and nights to avert such
evils; and have incurred reproach for my "pusillanimous moderation^
This disposition of the people and the forbearance of men of influence,
is well known to them. The suspension of the functions of the British
accredited agents would at once exhibit the determination of the gov-
ernment, and while it gratified the good, would fix the wavering and
appal the profligate. Should they persevere in audacity after suspen-
sion, such a notification as Yrujo got would sustain and give new con-
fidence to the people in their government ; and the measure has so
many circumstances to justify the procedure, that it could not be con-
sidered as a war measure. You have already dismissed foreign minis-
ters and consuls without its being considered as a war measure. You
have recalled ministers and consuls under similar circumstances. And
England has done the same. I have not the vanity to suppose I can
give you any information on this head, but I wish to shew that it is not
a light or hasty conception ; but such a measure as carries on it all that
could be wished of efficacy without violence. It cannot be supposed
that six newspapers in this city, four in New York, four in Boston
316 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
three in Baltimore, two in Norfolk, and two in Charleston could be
supported as efficiently as they are without secret supplies. I find it
impossible to get out of debt with the paper of greatest circulation in
the country ; and my personal expenses, beside clothing and food would
be discharged with fifty dollars a year !
As to the effect on England, I candidly declare I do not believe it
would have any ; I believe that nothing which we can do, will ever
induce her to alter her course of Policy. I believe she would have
struck a blow long ago on some point of the continent, had not the idea
of a civil war been confidently calculated upon. If the British agents
remain they will realise the calculation — if they are dismissed we
shall be saved.
The necessity of some decisive step to assure confidence in the friends
of the government is imperative. The virtuous part of the nation look
for it with impatience; and it is equally necessary to preserve the
wavering part of the community from flying into the arms of the public
enemies ; for then civil war would inevitably ensue ; and it is among
that class that in all convulsions the most cruel of mankind are found ;
those who are now the pimps and panders of foreign agency, and
cloathe their persons and their lips with words of sanctity and softness,
would become the cut-throats of men of virtue. There is therefore in
my humble opinion little time to be lost. A few weeks, or accidents
which are not to be foreseen, or causes purposely prepared perhaps by
an inveterate enemy, may convulse the nation ; and the enemy may
be beforehand with the government. I trust my fears however founded
will find me an excuse for trespassing with them upon your better
judgment and precious time. I am, &c.
To .
PmL A Feb. 1, .1809
Sir, — The enclosed letter and draft will explain each other — in an
effort to make an entire settlement of all my personal affairs I have
addressed, M r Adams of Orange O House — the draft of M r Gooch not
being indorsed by M r Adams is my reason for troubling you with the
letter along with the draft.
I wish to send a small packet and some information to Mr. Lyman
our consul at London, and am desirous it should go safely — may I take
the liberty of sending it forward to go along with the dispatches for
England ?
I am Sir with great respect
Your obed 1 Ser*
W m DUANE
The town meeting was very triumphant — But I am sorry to say
that the private animosities of individuals greatly damp the best efforts
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 317
of the friends of the government — tho' we endeavor to conceal it from
our adversaries, who do not so clearly discover as we feel the effects.
To Jefferson. 1
Phii.a. Feb. 4, 1809
Dear & respected Sir, — I have learned that the military rank
which you were pleased to nominate me for, has been confirmed by an
honorable majority of 21 to 10 in the Senate. I owe you the expres-
sion at least of my thanks for your goodness on this occasion, and for
the general benignity with which I have always been honored and
favored by you ; it is to me a very great solace, that exposed as I have
been and daily am to the persecutions of the most malignant of men,
I yet hold a place in your esteem and regard.
I should not trespass on you at this critical period were it not due to
your goodness and to my own honor to put you in possession of my
sentiments at this particular moment. The report of a change in the
War Department renders this more particularly necessary, lest I should
be placed between two duties, to shrink from or to abandon one of
which might be held dishonorable.
Unless the Eastern people, or a British force to aid rebellion, should
stir up civil war, I see no likelihood of military conflict within the U.
States. There may be a conflict in Louisiana or Florida, and it may
be found necessary to invade Canada, Nova Scotia, or even 'N. Found-
land ; but these are to appearance remote events ; and as the military
station I possess thro' your favor is not at all subject to more [than]
the trouble of parade and such studies as duty or taste may lead to
thro' that station, I can speak of the subject without any danger of
being suspected of a wish to shrink from danger, if danger were immi-
nent and my services called for. If there was danger, I should require
to be placed in front of it ; there is none, and I may therefore without
reserve state to you the motives of my present address.
As any man could render as much service as I could in ordinary,
and that therefore my loss or my absence would not be missed in any
position that I could be placed by my rank in the army ; I have con-
sidered, whether in the situation in which I am placed, there may not
be danger of rendering what was intended for my honor and credit, the
cause of my ruin and that of a numerous family — these considerations
to which no man of morals and honor can be indifferent, have called
upon me to state to you precisely how I am placed.
You perfectly well know that the family of B. F. Bache has de-
pended wholly and exclusively on me for subsistence and education.
I have brought up his four charming boys, the eldest now 16, the
* Jeff. MSS.
318 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
other three progressively two years in succession younger, I have four
younger children of my own by the mother of those sweet boys, beside
my three elder children two of whom are married and have children
and are in fact also dependent on me only.
Were I free from pecuniary encumbrances, or so circumstanced as
to make a provision for this numerous family, my personal obligations
would be in some measure enlarged ; but as I stand in relation to these,
and as the military pay of a lieutenant colonel could not much more
than support myself, and must leave them destitute if I were to abandon
my present means of support.
But this is not all. I unfortunately encumbered myself with a debt
of 22,000 dollars by making an establishment at Washington ; from
which debt I have not been able at this time to clear off more than 4,000.
So that I am now obliged to be dependent on Bank credits for that
amount of 18,000 dollars. Were I to quit my present business upon
the duty attached my rank while there is peace, I have no Doubt that
in three weeks the banks would close my account, and that the little
stock I possess in trade would be sold by a sheriff. As it is I am con-
stantly harrassed with this bank influence, and it is not a little aggra-
vated by the efforts made by officers of your appointment to increase
this embarrassment and indeed to destroy me altogether. My affairs
were no doubt brightening when the general storm of foreign outrage
came on ; and now through great personal labor I manage still to keep
progressing better instead of growing worse ; and a few years with the
same assiduity and resolution would place me out of debt and render
the remainder of my years easy and independent, as I should desire
to be.
There is however a suit pending against me in the Circuit Court be-
fore Judge Washington. A Tory house at Boston searched throughout
India and found the executors of a Doctor Nelson with whom I had
commercial concerns, and in whose hands was found an old bond for
500 Rupees (250 dollars) this bond was bought for 20 Rupees by the
house in Boston, and a suit instituted against me for the amount with
the interest of India 12 per cent per annum from the day of the date,
that is from 1791 to this time, amounting to more than 2,000 $. This
bond was in fact paid, but poor Nelson is dead, and I have ever been
too indifferent about money to have been careful enough to see it can-
celled. Yet I offered to pay it again, but nothing less than bond and
interest too would be accepted, altho' I was plundered of ten thousand
pounds and sent by force to Europe without crime or accusation. I
have been particular in this case only to shew you how far Tory enmity
will go for vengeance ; and to shew you the hazard which my family is
exposed to and would be exposed to were I sent to any position so re-
mote from hence as to endanger me at the banks, or carry me out of the
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 319
range of the courts of law, in which I am doomed I fear to linger out
my life.
I have several suits and perhaps you may be surprised to learn that
Mr. Snyder will not enter nolle prosequi s on the two suits instituted by
Yrujo against me, and that I must continue to run the gauntlet of the
courts under Snyder's administration as well as under McKean's. Dr.
Romayne has instituted another suit against me for implicating him
with Blount, and this is to be tried before Judge Washington, and a
Jury summoned by a Marshal, who has as a Director of a Bank caused
my credit to be sunk in that bank, and an investigation of my affairs by
a committee of Bank Directors, some of whom were my most hostile
political enemies.
This exposition of my situation I have deemed necessary to shew
you in order that whatever destination it may be intended to fix for me
in relation to the military rank, it may be considered how far I ought
to be or not to be kept in view. The summonses of law, and attend-
ance on the courts, I am bound by bail and otherwise to attend. No
doubt if a war were to take place I should risk all the consequences
and join the army in defence of my country ; but as it is I cannot avoid
nor would I evade them under any false colour of duty.
It may perhaps be said I ought not to have accepted because I must
have known my situation. When general Wilkinson first signified to
me that such a thing was intended, I stated expressly, that unless there
was a war I could not accept any military station ; but that in the event
of a war, I would not refuse any ; and when it was tendered to me after-
wards I inferred that it was the sign of an immediate war, I knew I
could be useful and I instantly determined to accept.
On the other hand I have been requested by some friends who know
my situation now to resign, since the Senate have conferred the honor
you proposed ; I have replied that would be repaying your kindness
with such ingratitude as I could not be guilty of ; and which would be
at this time at least unjust and ungenerous toward you.
In this predicament I am placed. In the event of war, I am at the
disposal of my country in any position they deem me fit for. But with-
out the necessity existing, I could not accept of any remote station that
would take me farther than two days journey from this place. As a
new Secretary of war may not be selected from those gentlemen with
whom I have always agreed in Politics ; and as there are several who
tho' supporters of the administration have been very hostile to me, I
think it necessary in such circumstances to put you to whom I am
bound by gratitude and affection in possession of my real situation and
my feelings.
The emoluments of the Lt. Colonelcy are in my estimation nothing.
I pay two of my clerks each a sum larger than the pay of that rank ;
320 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
and should, if it was not that I have performed some useful service,
not have accepted any pay ; but I have been really serviceable at Fort
Mifflin and in the recruiting business here.
You will soon have to retire from office, and I shall not while I live
perhaps ever find a man like you to whom I can speak with the free-
dom and the confidence of integrity reposing in the bosom of wisdom
and benevoLence. To Mr. Madison I am very little known, and some
of his friends who have done me a disservice and contributed to my
embarrassments by their injustice will perhaps never forgive me, and
render any usefulness that I might be capable of nugatory from a want
of intelligence existing.
If however any views which you may have as to me may induce you
to think that I could be rendered useful, and particularly in any emer-
gency when men of intelligent minds may be required, I shall hold
myself bound to obey ; and if my opinions or suggestions, on any branch
of public affairs that come within the range of an active and observing
mind ; I shall be ever ready to obey any call that may be made on me.
This letter I address to yourself with an assurance of my most affec-
tionate and earnest wishes for your happiness.
To Madison.
Phil a May 3 d , 1809
Respected Sir, — Public motives, such as I conceive calculated to
render service to the interests and honor of your administration, induce
me to take the liberty of addressing you. The unhappy conflict which
has arisen out of the case of Olmstead is now quieted so far as the law
and the parties in that case are involved. The Militia men who under a
blind opinion of obedience to their superiors have trespassed are now
imprisoned, Gen. Bright to 3 months and eight others to 1 month each
— the former to pay 200 and each of the latter 50 dollars fine.
Bright is a plain man of no cultivation, bred to the sea & rough as
that element — he however served as a lieutenant in the military dur-
ing the Revolution, and was a prisoner on board the floating dungeons
at N. York, from which he made his escape by stratagem. He was
once wealthy, but has been ruined by a partner of the name of Deihl,
and is now in very indifferent circumstances; he is a truly honest man,
but what is very common with such men, very liable to be imposed
upon by knaves, such was his misfortune in the recent case, an involve-
ment which is to be attributed wholly to the intrigues of Cha s Smith,
son of the late Parton Smith who, having considerable landed property
in arrear to the State, has labored with too much success to embroil
the State, so as to produce such a change as may afford him means to
avoid paying what he owes, amounting as I am told to 60,000 dollars.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DDANE. 321
This man operating upon the want of understanding of Mr Snyder and
the intriguing character of Mr Boileau, Secretary of the Commonwealth,
a man superficial in every respect, but cunning and in that quality
proficient even to profligacy ; Lay cock a member of assembly who is
endeavoring to raise up a spirit of resistance on the questions long
agitated concerning appeals in Land causes ; and Findley the State
treasurer, a man more capable than any of the rest, but more close and
insidious in his plans; these men are the real authors of the mischief;
and it is this little junta who called in Smith, as a legal aid, because
they had no man of legal education or of correct legal judgment amongst
them ; and who resorted to him under the expectation of being served
in their views ; he was to be rewarded with a seat on the Bench for
his services ; but the bubble burst, and both parties are disappointed ,
Smith is not a Judge, and the case of Olmstead has established a prece-
dent fatal to their projects.
My conception of the case as it now stands is that as the law is
satisfied, the clemency of the Executive promptly interposed would
have the effect of frustrating the malignant purposes of those who are
already seeking to engender feuds and divisions out of this case. My
sole object in addressing you is to this end ; and the government would
derive here much credit for a timely termination of the imprisonment
Of those citizens ; it would be more decisive in such a case, if the act of
release were communicated thro' some well known and avowed friend
of your administration rather than thro' the formal channel of the law
department ; since we already look forward to guard against the effects
of these events on the political affairs of the state in three and four
years hence. All the men are married men with families, excepting
one only.
I trust, Sir, that the motives of this address will find with you a kind
reception, and excuse me for the liberty of making it,
I have the honor to be with respect
Your obed* Ser*
W M DUANE
I do not write under the expectation of an answer — my wish is to
submit my ideas on the case to your judgment with fairness — and I
make no doubt that you will decide as shall be in your judgment most
conducive to the public interests.
To Henry Dearborn.
Phila. July 27. 1809
Dr. Sir, — Immediately upon the receipt of yours of the 22d I set
about the enquiry you wished me to make concerning Sheet Iron.
Some days will elapse before I can advise you with certainty and in
41
322 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
such a way as to put you in possession of the best information. I have
written to my old friend Col. Udree of Clay in Berks county, who is
himself an eminent Iron-master and who supplies this city largely.
Here as yet I can only learn that the cut nails are not made from
what is called Sheet-iron, but from what is called hoop iron and nail
rod iron ; the hoop iron wrought at our penitentiary here I believe
costs about 10 cents the pound, but this is not from authentic informa-
tion ; I write you now only to let you know that I have received your
letter and will attend to it with great pleasure.
The affairs with England are such as every rational man ought to
have expected. I believe Jackson is sent to put us in that situation
which must involve us in a war with France if we receive him, in war
with England if we refuse him. I believe further that he is sent at
the instigation of persons among us, that is persons in your State, for
there can be no doubt of the facts lately published concerning S. Wil-
liams' letter to Mr. Preble at Paris about the proposed separation of
the Union.
It is in my judgment the best policy of our government to procrasti-
nate and wait for events in Europe, where we have in fact been best
served and always rescued from impending peril.
This will be best also to let our Ships come home again, all that shall
be permitted! And those whose infamous clamours against the wise and
protecting policy of their country, ought to be made to suffer by their
own measure of open commerce ; in another point of view it will also be
better, for you must know how utterly unfit our System is for war.
What man is there who could stand the responsibility of any military
undertaking or enterprize ; how could it be conducted under existing
laws and a total want of organization, of System, of experience, of mili-
tary knowledge ; when the principles of modern war are understood by
scarcely ten men of the profession ; when we have artillerists who know
not how to fire a cannon, and some of the oldest officers who never
fired or saw fired a mortar. I speak to this point from experience where I
was posted by you, and from the information of the officers themselves ;
all whom I have conversed with speak in the same terms : and when
on the 4th July I directed a detachment of 20 men from Fort Mifflin
to march with our little corps to Phila. Capt. Read wished to be ex-
cused, that there was not a man in his garrison who knew how to
handle a spunge. If you were in your former station I should be
apprehensive of stating this to you, and the same delicacy will prevail
now as to Dr. Eustis • because it would be considered perhaps in a
different light from the intention. Indeed my dear Sir, the opportunity
you gave me by placing me in a military command has added to my
knowledge at the same time that it has encreased my chagrin. The
very structure of our military establishment is such, aud the indifference
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 323
or the want of a discerning and creative power to give it form and
vigor would be with me alone a full inducement to avoid by every
means not abject the commencement of hostility. Suppose an expedi-
tion were devised against Canada or Halifax, we should see Pickering
in the Senate and Randolph in the other house immediately trans-
formed into military critics, and by way of shewing their capacity to
cavil at military designs they would expose and frustrate the best pos-
sible plans; for when we see both houses of Congress led away on
subjects which they ought to comprehend, how much more effectual
would sophistry and plausible assertion operate where the orators and
auditors were wholly ignorant of what they were talking about. This
is strong, but it is true & honest language, which men in authority
ought to hear, but which they will not regard until misfortune opens
their eyes and ears and senses.
I do not like to intrude upon men in authority, it is so much the
fashion to do so only to ask favors ; and this asking of favors is so often
the motive that it is not surprising it should be so thought. To Mr.
Jefferson I could say any thing without fear of being mistaken ; I have
too little acquaintance with Mr. Madison to take the liberty to volun-
teer my ideas upon him ; tho' to all appearance for eight or ten years
past I have been as little mistaken as if I had a constant communication
with the heads of Departments.
If I had an opportunity to address Mr. Madison now, I would say
to him — Let Mr. Jackson come forth, let him exhibit his credentials
and having taken a copy, treat him with a stern civility ; and as there
is a precedent, if my memory serves me, during Gen. Washington's
administration he might be informed in a finished note of diplomatic
complaisance, that as the Senate are the constitutional advisers of the
President his credentials would be laid before them ; upon any diffi-
culty being made by him, the necessity of the case would be reinforced
by the disavowal of Mr. Erskine's engagements ; and a willingness might
then be expressed to listen to any evidence that Mr. Erskine had not
been authorized to promise as he had done.
A proposal might be made for an interview and reciprocal expositions
of the instructions of both Mr. Erskine & Mr. Jackson ; or Mr. Erskine
might be invited to exhibit his justification, or Mr. Jackson to shew he
had not such instructions. A refusal to do either of these things would
gain time for deliberation ; and care should be taken to guard the sea-
ports against the usual companions and followers of Mr. Jackson. At
Munich and Carlsruhe, he associated with Sir Arthur.
Mr. Taylor organized that conspiracy to assassinate Bonaparte for
which the Duke of Enghien was shot.
If Mr. Erskine does not justify himself here, or offer what he con-
siders as his justification, so that our government may say whether he
324 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
was or not, it is not easy to discover how Jackson can be received and
accredited.
There could be no means so fit and suitable as a meeting of the Sec-
retary of State and one or more of our heads of Departments with Mr.
Erskine and Mr. Jackson, and an explicit communication of documents.
If Lord Auckland (as is reported) should be sent he might also
attend, and the Secty of State might report to the President & Senate
the result ; and until this should be determined there might be a sus-
pension of any reception of Jackson, whom in fact we cannot receive
without going to war; and against whom a remonstrance and denial
should go to England by the first dispatch or by a special vessel.
These enquiries might afford time while such a message should be
sent to Mr. Pinckney.
I fear very much lest this new emissary who is sufficiently desper-
ate for a leader of assassins, and if I mistake not was the person who
negotiated the murder of the Emperor Paul, should produce serious
mischief, for he will be furnished with every means of corruption.
My best respects to Mrs. Dearborne.
I am Dr Sir with sincere esteem yours.
To Madison.
Nov. 1, 1809
Sir, — M r Christopher Fitzsimmons of Charleston, South Carolina,
and M r Hugh Calhoun of Philadelphia, the former one of the most
respectable men in his respectable State, & a zealous friend to your
principles and measures, and those of your predecessor — M r Calhoun is
a merchant of this city, of the same principles.
They persuade themselves and flatter me, that the best manner they
could obtain an introduction to you is by handing a note from me ; you
will perceive, Sir, that it is more a wish that this should be real than a
consciousness that I am entitled to it which induces me to comply with
their wish, you will however excuse me when you know M r Fitz-
simmons as well as M r Calhoun.
Accept Sir my most respectful wishes
Y r obed 1 Ser
Phil a Nov 1, 1809.
To Madison,
Phil a 1. Dec'. 1809
Sir, — Every man owes to his country the best services of which he
is capable ; if in an upright zeal to fulfil this obligation a man may
overate the value of his conceptions, the intention to do good will at
once excuse the attempt and apologize for whatever trouble he may
give in communicating the result of his reflections.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 325
In the present situation of the national affairs, and considering that
the uniform policy of the belligerents is now irrevocably fixt, as well
as by fear and necessity on the part of Great Britain, as by interest
and the pride of triumph on the other, that course which is best adapted
to the interests and policy of the United States, tho' it cannot be very
well mistaken by men of sober minds, is not so easily pursued directly
as it would be were the attacks upon the nation open instead of insidi-
ous — or by other weapons than those of diplomacy and intrigue.
The country has not been more united on any occasion perhaps since
the revolution as on the present occasion ; the attack on the Chesa<=
peake struck the influence of England to its foundations ; and had
Congress maintained the Embargo and called forth the Militia of Massa-
chusetts only to enforce the laws ; that influence could never have
reared its crest ; the Mission of Rose would have been a mission of
temporary accommodation at least ; and instead of the broken engage-
ments of Erskine, and the contumacious audacity of Jackson, we should
now have had either the open commerce of the World or the applause
and respect of mankind as our passport to the friendship of nations after
a peace shall have been established.
It is now a matter of the first importance to consider how the nation
can best act under the present aspect of human affairs. It is morally
certain that a peace whenever it takes place will be followed by an
establishment of some fixt rules of law by which the nations who shall
concur in them will be governed in their intercourse with each other ;
that some code analogous to the principles recognized in the writings
of Barlow, Paine, Azzuni, and more early asserted by the Armed Neu-
trality of 1780, tho' not in so enlarged a sense ; and that such nations
as may either withhold their concurrence, or refuse to maintain them
will be placed out of the law of civil society. The first question then is
what course ought the United States to pursue in such circumstances?
This question however cannot be determined until a previous en-
quiry is made, what can the U. S. do under such circumstances ? After
this is examined the path appears not to be incumbered with any serious
difficulties ; and even this question can be met with perfect confidence
and security if the Representatives of the people do not again abandon
the executive ; or that the executive determines to support the laws of
the land whenever they are established. It is not my intention to say
that the Executive did not act with a discretion truly benignant at the
period when Massachusetts appeared to threaten a dissolution of the
Union ; but I am still convinced that had the Militia of Massachusetts
or only 5000 men been embodied that the government and laws of the
Union would have triumphed, and that there neither would have been
a life lost nor a factious collusion with the agents of England exhibited
since.
326 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
What can we now do ? This question involves others, and particu-
larly this ; are there any means by which the national sentiment can be
concentrated so as to bid defiance to every movement or menace of
faction. It is not necessary to my present purpose to enter into the
discussion of any collateral questions, since my intention is to offer the
suggestions of my mind on this point alone. If this point can be ac-
complished the choice of means and measures afterwards will not be
uncertain. If what I conceive proper to be pursued should yet fall
short of the extent of advantage which I anticipate, even then we
should not in any case be in a worse situation than we are without
doing any thing ; and if I conceive right all that the most benevolent
wishes or the most zealous virtue could desire would be attempted
by us.
The policy of the government and the real happiness of the people
have concurred in rendering the nation adverse to the calamitous resort
of war. The impossibility of raising large armies, as well as the unex-
aggerated danger of such establishments have the same operation ; and
the want of objects sufficiently contiguous to tempt enterprize, damps
in a great degree the ardor of those whose military passions would be
excited to a dangerous extent, were the temptations nearer at hand.
It is impossible for this nation then to go to war, but when the whole
people are united, when it is a sentiment of common danger or common
resentment. Let me add another reason, the total want of a military
system, or speaking largely of military ideas, incapacitates the U. S.
from going to war by land.
Under all these difficulties if we were called upon for defense, the
sense of danger would supersede the arrangements of policy : and the
systems which we are now wholty destitute of would (tho' with a
large purchase of blood) grow out of our dangers ; we should as in the
Revolution and as Peter the Great acquired his knowledge learn to
conquer by being often defeated. I conceive war may be avoided.
The purpose of this address is to suggest my ideas of the means.
Having exhausted all the artifices of Diplomacy, the British govern-
ment will be governed in her deportment to us by the prospects which
she may have in Europe. She will not abandon her policy of monop-
oly, unless perhaps for a temporary resting time, as at the peace of
Amiens. If there should appear to be a prospect of stirring up another
war on the continent, she would again go to war ; or so soon as the
French should have built a navy equal in number to her own, that
moment or before it war would be again renewed ; and we should
experience in a more tense tyranny the encrease of those oppressions
for which he has established the precedents within a few years. The
orders of Council and the proclamations of 1807 and 1808 would like
the rule of 1756 be preached up — as the established law of nations ; and
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 327
the leisure of a temporary peace would have quieted down those re-
sentments which now prevail against her tyranny as those which prevailed
in the revolution were extinguished by the strange revolution produced
by the British Treaty.
It is a very common opinion, that if all the nations of Europe were
decidedly against England, she would be induced to make peace with
us. Those who conceive such ideas may perhaps know the English
policy better than I do ; but as I can form no judgment but by my own
study and observation, by a residence of several years at the theatre
of which they act ; by a personal acquaintance with many of the most dis-
tinguished men of the age in that country ; and by habits and pursuits well
adapted to investigate as well as to acquire a knowledge of their policy.
If the whole of the nations of Europe should, and I am persuaded
they must, become hostile to English policy ; I am satisfied by reflection
that England will not abate her policy towards the U. States, because
as she exists by commerce only, and as we are in truth the most for-
midable rival in the commercial world ; it would be her interest to
interrupt if she could not destroy our prosperity ; her policy would
lead her to do that on a large scale which she has done on a small ;
she has encouraged the conflagration of our growing factories and
would conflagrate our cities and towns; she would not suffer our ships
to go to the continent without paying a transit or tribute duty, she would
[not] suffer our ships to pursue even our accustomed commerce in time
of peace : the same policy leads to annihilate our trade altogether ; and it
is not the want of inclination but of ability that prevents it.
Two all powerful motives impel the U. States to determine now and
to satisfy the world of its policy; 1. The national Interests as they
concern the body of the nation in their individual situation 2 The
national Interests in their relations with civilized nations. We are now
called upon to preserve and to maintain both ; and if we lose this time
we shall never again possess occasions so favourable to our fortunes
and to the honor of the nation.
Ail these objects can be obtained in my opinion without war — by a
measure founded on the principles of neutrality as they were asserted
in 1780, accompanied by a declaration of Retaliation, which should go
to every thing but human life. To exemplify the method in which the
government might proceed, I will take the liberty of specifying in a
loose way the particular course and the manner that seems to me best
to be adopted in prosecuting the measures.
The outrage on the Chesapeake is in every respect marked by the
atrocity of the design and the perpetration, by the contumelious carrying
away several, and hanging of one of the captives ; by the unpunished
impunity of the authors and perpetrators ; and by the repeated insults
& refusals of justice which have followed it.
328 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
A law of Congress might authorise reprisals, either in that special
case, or which would be more decisive in ail cases ; the seizure of man
for man, British subjects for American citizens, and the detention of
the persons seized as hostages for the security and safe return of the
persons taken unlawfully from on board any American ship. The
principle to be extended to ships ; ship for ship, dollar for dollar ; and
in failure of ships or merchandize, the retaliating principle to be ex-
tended to every other species of British property; dollar for dollar,
together with expenses. ,
The law of Congress recognizing these principles might be issued
with a public Declaration of the intentions of the United States, to be
issued by the Executive ; wherein the injuries sustained might be set
forth, and the long forbearance exhibited ; that even now the Gov 1 of
the U States deprecates war & the destruction of the lives of the
unoffending citizens of any country for the offences committed by their
rulers ; that after repeated efforts had failed to obtain the restoration
of the citizens of the U States without any other effect than a renewal
of insult ; the Gov 1 was now disposed to take another recourse to avoid
if possible the greater calamities of war, by taking as hostages wherever
found British subjects in number equal to the number of persons taken
from on board the Chesapeake, to the number killed and to the num-
ber maimed ; and that those hostages should be detained and put to
employments suited to their capacities, and the surplus of whatever
they might by their industry acquire to be applied to the support of
the injured or the survivors of those who were killed, maimed or taken
away from on board the Chesapeake, until such time as the British
government should restore those now in their custody and remunerate
as might be agreed upon the survivors of the murdered and injured.
The proceeding in the initiatory process of such a course of meas-
ures point themselves out ; and I only offer my conceptions be-
cause I do not wish to leave the subject incomplete. The minister
of the U. S. might make a formal demand of the persons at the court
of London, and signify the indisposition of the U. S. to resort to an
ancient usage, that of taking hostages ; or this might follow the first
requisition ; he might in the course of the correspondence signify that
the United States would in future take hostages and make levies on
property to the full amount of all illegal captures or detentions made
by our nation ; and might still strongly and strenuously argue upon the
humanity of such a course in preference to the shedding of the blood
of the unoffending.
I persuade myself that this recourse would have all the important
effects which I set out with assuming as necessary ; and other effects
equally important. The people of the U. S. would have reason to be
proud of another step in national policy towards the avoidance and
abolition of war ; they would see in the act of taking hostages for the
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 329
restoration of the captives, a regard to their own security in future ;
(a regard too little attended to hitherto either in the eye of policy or
humanity) ; they would find the government humane and yet just ;
faithful to itself and yet more generous than other nations in sparing
the blood of the innocent ; with regard to foreign nations, it would make
every people our friends, because the people of every country are the
sufferers and the governors alone are those who do not suffer, our ex-
ample would then be the touchstone of respect, and esteem would even
take place of hostility in the bosom of the very nation that injured us ;
while the hostages we should secure would assure us negociators in the
very bosom of the hostile nation whose cries would be respected where
our complaints of wrong have only provoked derision ; and become the
jest of profligate ministers and the topics of their midnight debauches.
There is one more point of view in which this project of retaliation
on hostages may be taken. It may be said that it would produce an
immediate declaration of war on the part of Great Britain. This would
perhaps depend in the first instance on the mode in which the subject
should be promulged ; or on incidents over which we have no control.
I am of opinion that she will yet make war upon us ; and I am persuaded
as well from the choice of their last Ambassador as well as from the
correspondence of his style here with his style in Denmark, that he was
intended as the touchstone by which the measure of our patience was
to be tried before actual war was resorted to. In this last case then
war would not be the effect of our measure of benevolent policy, but
of their intolerable envy and monopoly.
It would then remain to be enquired whether upon their making
actual war, that is making war without landing an army or invading our
territory, the policy of retaliation and hostages would not still be a
judicious one so long as they should refrain from outrage on our terri-
tory. Making war upon our ships at sea, our ships might be authorised
to arm for defence ; and a declaration to this effect might be published.
Among the good effects of the retaliation by hostages, the country
would soon be cleared of many detestable characters that are now lurk-
ing about our cities. Others whose disaffection contributes to sustain
that hostility to the government so visible in our cities would be re-
pressed by public opinion or by a sense of danger. The nation once
roused by a measure so humane and yet decisive would not suffer the
calumny that has been poured forth with impunity.
But the most important consideration in my view is the great proba-
bility that it would produce a great effect, upon public sentiment in
England and compel the administration to restore all our impressed
Citizens and to refrain from their capture in future. Should any dec-
laration be issued in such an event, it seems to me that it would be
wise to establish the principle as a permanent one, that of taking
42
330 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
hostages and sequestrating property in retaliation and declaring that
such would be the policy of the U. S. at all times in j>reference to war.
Such Sir are the ideas that present themselves to me, thrown to-
gether without reperusal or taking a copy, which my avocations do not
admit me the leisure to do. I submit it to your liberality, and offer
it as a testimony of my zeal and good intentions, whatever may be the
degree of regard to which it is entitled.
I am Sir your obed Ser
W M Duane
James Madison Esq. Pres* of the U. States
To Madison.
Phil a 5 Deer 1809
Sir, — I have revolved for some time in my mind the ideas which
in a crude form I have taken the liberty of addressing to you. I pre-
sume not to set any higher value on them than liberal intentions and
an enthusiastic devotion to the principles and durability of Republican
Government may give them. I neither look for an answer nor do I
wish for any thing more than the gratification of endeavoring to pro-
mote what is honorable and glorious to my country.
If this should be acceptable or not intrusive on your time, I should
take the liberty of addressing to you my ideas on the institution of a
national Bank, the basis of which should be public lands, shares repre-
senting acres to a certain amount ; the acres to be taken at a limitted
period by the holder and the stock to go to the public ; or the holder of
stock to have his option of Cash for the share in Bank ; and the land
to become either the object of purchase at the rate of lands at the mo-
ment, or to become the representative of new shares ; the objects of the
plan, would be — 1 To unite all the Eastern Bank holders by the tie
of property in Southern lands; to make the reduction of Interest to
5 per Cent a part of the establishment, and by combining the shares
in Bank with property in land to cut off the pestilential influence which
foreign stock and bank jobbers have on all our national concerns. In
fact I have suggested the outline already ; to a mind like Mr. Gallatin's
such a plan would at once present itself in a manner that would give
it form and efficacy, and I persuade myself that the useful objects which
I have suggested would naturally grow out of it — Objects which I need
not describe the vast importance of. I wish however not to be known
as suggesting the subject, because such a matter should stand upon its
own foundations without prejudice or partiality to its author — circum-
stances which too often interfere with human interests & happiness.
Excuse this trouble and permit me to subscribe myself your friend &
respectful hunb S l
W M Duane
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 331
To Madison.
Phil a Dec r 8, 1809
Sir, — I took the liberty of placing before you some few ideas on
the subject of an application of the principle of a security in land for
an investment of cash in Bank Stock at a reduced interest. It has
since occurred to me, that as the impost may probably fall short of the
sum requisite for exigency, that a resort to an investiture of land to
cover a public loan would not only enable the administration to raise
an immense sum, but to defeat at a stroke the clamour which the
enemies of the government would not fail to raise in the event of any
necessity for a money loan.
It appears to me that the occasion should now be used to raise a very
large sum in that way, so that if the nation should be involved in war
there may be a provision for its calls in advance ; for I very much fear
there has not been as full a consideration of the necessary amount [of]
expenditures as would seem to be necessary among the members of that
part of the government who hold the purse; and that the want of a
due knowledge of what ought to be done would cripple the executive
to a degree more pernicious than the efforts of an enemy.
My conception of the method of raising a supply I shall take the
liberty of stating, merely to explain what I suggest, & not presuming
to decide upon its being very excellent much less infallible, but barely
giving it as a suggestion which in abler hands may be made something of.
I would raise a sum equal to three or four years of the usual revenue
of the United States. This besides being provident in fact, would be a
valuable measure on the surface of affairs, indicating the determination
to be prepared in earnest for defence.
For every million of dollars to be raised, I would suggest the appro-
priation of half a million of acres of public lands ; the lands to be sur-
veyed in the course of the year ensuing and in ranges after the plan of
the Ohio Military lands. The tracts surveyed should be in more than
ten or 20000 acres in any section or territory ; or each of these tracts
should be at least 50 miles apart ; and there might be some limit to the
right of purchase for any one person of more than a certain number of
acres.
It would not be difficult, from an investigation of the sales of public
lands for some years past, and other means, to ascertain the progressive
rise in various lands before and after survey and sale.
The loan upon lands might be made in such a way as — first to
obtain the money at a very low interest.
Secondly — that an option to retain the lands or receive a [blank] per
cent stock at the end of six years, or one year after a war ; redeemable
in [blank] years.
332 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Thirdly the loan when raised to be placed in public funds, so as that
what should be over the public demand might be made productive in
either reducing part of the old public debt ; or in constructing some
great roads or canals to facilitate intercourse and promote public
prosperity.
As the ideas of the principle are ail that are necessary, details being
superfluous if the principles are not practicable, I think it unnecessary
to intrude further upon your time.
I do not look for any answer, if the thoughts are of any use that is
all I look for — if not, I am not willing to trespass on you for the mere
ceremony of a note when I know the paper must reach you. I am, Sir,
with respect
Your obed Ser f
To Dearborn.
W M Duane
Phila. Jan. 21. 1810
Dear and esteemed Friend, —I had the pleasure of receiving
yours of the 13th instant this day only. You surprize me very much
by informing me that the little controversy in the Essex Register has
proceeded from your son ; you know the zeal that I have pursued
military studies with, and the apprehensions which I feel lest we
should be lulled into a fatal confidence. The world is not now as it was
in 1775. The British had not been military men since the days of
Marlborough, with him and Lord Peterborough the British saw the
last of their generals ; for Wolf and the Marquis of Granby, derived
their reputation from causes not at all arising out of personal talent.
Our system before Steuben's introduction of the modified Prussian was
bad ; and yet perhaps you may remember that there were great clamours
and some resignations upon the introduction of Steuben ; the British
General Williamson endeavoured to establish a good discipline in
the British army, but the courtiers were jealous of him, and Gen. Sir
William Howe who followed Williamson, was only an imitator, with-
out the genius of Williamson whose principles were sound and corre-
spond very much with modern tactics ; but they were never adopted
through envy and jealousy of the man who had talents. The revolu-
tion found us and the British found themselves in this discord on a
subject which above all others requires simplicity and unity of princi-
ples ; every British regiment was differently organized, and when any
two met, they were incapable of being exercised together ; they did not
understand each others words of command or mode of evolution. Wolf,
Bland, Haldimand, all had different systems, and every colonel had one
different from them ; this gave the raw troops of Massachusetts a great
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 333
advantage ; and a want of a correct discipline in the British was as much
in our favor as any other circumstance.
The example of Prussia in the seven years war, and of France in
the present day, demonstrates the force and importance of discipline ;
and the disadvantage and misfortune of a want of it ; my efforts for
several years have been directed to dissipate erroneous ideas and
establish correct opinions on those subjects ; but I find a mass of pre-
judice as well as some jealousy ; I content myself in combatting the
prejudices because jealousy is rather a compliment.
When the article appeared in the Essex Register, I thought it was a
good occasion to draw public attention particularly in Massachusetts
to correct ideas, and I wished for nothing more than the controversy
should be kept up amicably, in order to exemplify what is the fact,
that the modern discipline is much more simple in its principles, and
more agreeable and interesting to those who once get into the spirit of
it than the old ; it is easier learned, easier taught, and easier practised ;
and I was anxious that where the materials are so good, and the dis-
position to do right so evident, it would be useful to address their minds
in bold expressions conveying strict and indisputable truth, but yet so
as to awaken both pride and reflection. This I hope will produce a
spirit of enquiry, and where that takes place the approach to truth is
certain. I hope nothing that I have said has given your worthy son pain
or disquiet, nothing could be more remote from my wishes. If he looks
at my purpose and the effects which I wished to produce he will excuse
me now, and perhaps reflect with pleasure on the incident that may
have awakened his mind to enquiry : Offer him my respected friend,
my most affectionate wishes and if he is disposed to open a private
correspondence and put any questions to me, if I can answer I will ; if
I cannot with confidence I will certainly tell him so.
I have written so much to you at once that I must tire you. I cannot
therefore talk to you of politicks or anything else, but shall write you
again in a few days.
Give my most respectful and affectionate wishes to Mrs. Dearborne,
and be so good as to mention me to Mr. & Mrs. Wingate when you
write them next.
Ever affectionately yours
W M Duane
To Madison.
Phil a April 16, 1810
Sir, — My Son W m J. Duane will have the honor to present you
this note, going to Washington on a matter of business his own wishes
and my desire would not suffer me to scruple taking this liberty of
making him known to you.
334 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
He goes to Washington with the View of prosecuting an undertaking
which I formerly contemplated, the publication of an edition of the laws
of the U. S. upon a plan which I had the honor, once personally and
once by letter, to present to your attention. Any support which the
undertaking may be entitled to, which you may consider yourself fairly
authorised to bestow is all he seeks, and which given to him will be
most grateful to, Sir,
Your most obed and respectful Ser 1
W M DUANE
James Madison Esq r Presd 1 of U States
To Dearborn.
Phila. July 3, 1810
My dear Sir, — I have this moment received yours of the 29th
June, for the frankness, kindness, and confidence which it displays, I
should be very cold of heart if I were not sensible. You do justice to
my intentions and wishes, and altho' I do not agree with you as to the
particular man of Pennsylvania whose conduct I consider as a primary
cause of our present difficulties, I differ from you on nothing else. In
my humble sphere as long as I have been capable of thinking I have
decided for myself independent of all human control; and it is necessary
for me to state and to shew this to you because you appear to think
that my sentiments concerning Mr. Gallatin are produced either by the
influence of Mr. Smith, or that Dr. Leib by some supposed association
with the Smiths influences me.
Impressions of this kind have been urged to me from other quarters
and either there must have been a very uncommon concurrence in a
mistake, or the impression has been made from one point upon many.
You know very well how very different my real character is from
that artificial character which the enmity of the federalists have set
up for me, and put off as mine. Let me assure you that in the present
instance I am as much misrepresented. From the Baltimore gentle-
men, I never received any favors, whatever there has been between
them and me has partaken more of injury to me (as far as it could go)
than favor. I have never corresponded with either of them ; and if it
so happens that they think as I think on public affairs, a circumstance
of which I am no otherwise informed than by general rumor, and upon
which I was not satisfied till I received yours ; for in fact I never had
the good fortune to be favored with any communications from the Seat
of Government, and have therefore been obliged at all times to depend
on the resources of my own experience and judgment; very fortunately
these resources have seldom failed me, and by pursuing the two simple
rules of common sense and plain truth, I have been able to discharge
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 335
my little ministry of the press with as much cause for self gratification
as any of my cotemporaries. With the Baltimore gentlemen therefore
I have neither intimacy nor correspondence, I seek none with them,
and if I am not very much deceived they respect more than they love
me. I shall never be on any other terms with them. So much for
that point. On the other point, that of Dr. Leib; he and I have agreed
and disagreed in politics now fourteen years without the one having ever
changed the opinions of the other ; we have concurred in fundamental
principles, and in pursuit of measures of policy we have seldom differed ;
but we have seriously differed about men, many times, & act as distinctly
upon each his own judgment as any two men of opposite politics. We
have been linked together by those who could not bring either to be the
instrument in destroying the other. Mr. Gallatin is one of those who
made the formal overture to me at his own office in Washington to
abandon Leib, or I should be destroyed politically myself; he is not
the only one who made similar propositions. But the impression made
upon my mind was not that of personal danger to myself but the infamy
of the proposers. I never made Leib acquainted with the fact, tho' I
stated it to Mr. Clay & to my Son ; but the very overture strengthened
my esteem for Leib, because seeing his policy and principles naked at
all times, I could not conceive how any man with honest views could
imagine so foul a purpose, or imagine me capable of being a vile instru-
ment in it. I am as independent of Leib, and no man knows it better
than himself, as I am of the Smiths or of Gallatin, and I shall always
remain so. As to his becoming a favorite with either I suspect not
without grounds that you are not well informed ; I know Leib's opinions
on the views and conduct of the parties generally and individually : I
know what their deportment was towards Dr. Leib when he was in
Congress, and it can scarcely be supposed that he can forget it. He
has dined once or twice with one of them, but this as a Senator could
not involve any partiality ; it was to Dr. L. no doubt acceptable that
those who privately calumniated him six years ago should thus expiate
their injustice by publicly caressing him. If they were sincere before,
they must be inconsistent now, if they were hypocrites before they can-
not be sincere now. Leib is not a man of dull capacity, he sees and
decides as soon as any man I know.
You see my dear Sir that I return your frankness in kind by shew-
ing you the real state of my own mind and that of Dr. Leib.
As to the circumstances which govern my publications in which Mr.
Gallatin comes under notice, the publications themselves explain by
the facts the motives which actuate me ; it is not/ liking nor dislike ;
if personal considerations could at any time govern my political discus-
sions I have nothing of the kind to bias me in relation to the one or
the other. Superior motives actuate me, and whether the malice of
336 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
party or the malignity of those who deem me above seduction, such as
John Randolph, depreciate or condemn my principles of action, I feel
in my heart the healthy consolement of an upright pursuit of what my
conscience and stedfast judgment determines to be for the best interests
of my country. If personal motives or a sense of personal injury could
prevail over my principles of conduct, your successor in the War De-
partment has put me to the test. But I know myself to be superior
to every species of meanness.
My opinion deliberately made up is, that Mr. Gallatin has been a
principal operator of our present unhappy situation. I believe him not
only to be a dangerous politician but unfaithful to his public trust. This
is my honest opinion, and I appeal to the single fact of his revealing to
John Randolph the confidential subjects of discussion between President
Jefferson and his ministers is not enough of itself to cut up all confi-
dence in the man for ever. I know the particulars of that subject in the
most direct way, and am therefore not liable to be imposed upon by
external impressions ; I know that we might now have Florida were
it not for him ; and I have some reason to think that it was land specu-
lation not a respect for the appropriation section of the Constitution
which actuated him.
If any thing more were wanting, look to the correspondence of Mr.
Erskine laid before the British parliament, look at his scandalous con-
duct there, are you aware that he said to Mr. Erskine that he Mr. G.
had been years employed in efforts to wean Mr. Jefferson from his French
attachments ; this has not been published to be sure but look at John
Randplph's speeches, see Mr. Gallatin in constant secret intimacy with
him ; see Macon as the dupe and the link that connects Gallatin and
Randolph, see the Bills called Macon's No. 1 & 2. Mr. Findley, who
overcame his former enmities sufficiently to write me, assured me that
" Mr. Gallatin had the best motives in drafting those Bills! " & " that it
was not to be inferred that he approved of them because he drafted them."
Why sir this is the consummation of political fraud ; the utmost pains
were taken to disseminate an opinion that Mr. Madison was the author
of those Bills, and I know the men to whom he held two different
opinions personally on the subject. Honesty, my dear sir, is the best
of policy ; and a dishonest politician cannot be an honest man.
I am opposed for the same reasons to every idea of playing off one
minister against another. I would do in such a case as I would do with
a domestic, fidelity to trust and pursuit of my best interests and wishes
would be my criterions of confidence; if one of two deviated from these
obligations I would dismiss him ; I do not admire the principle upon
which Stanley Griswold was dismissed in Michigan, any more than the
sacrifice of Wilkinson to appease the friends of a traitor, a government
cannot endure which suffers such practices to supercede moral and
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 337
political justice. If I would adopt any intermediate expedient, it would
be to dismiss both ; for such is the unhappy frailty of human nature, that
unless there is some decided mind to check the collisions of two men
everything must go to disorder ; such as Mr. Gallatin inflated by the
reputation which he has obtained (and it is many degrees above his
natural mark !) and by the vast landed wealth which his situation has
enabled him to amass ; and Mr. Smith vain by habit and by the weighty
influence which his connexions and wealth give him, I say it will be
impossible that the measures of- policy devised by the President, if they
were the most wise that wisdom could suggest, can escape collision be-
tween such conflicting passions. Washington has in fact become a
theatre of intrigue ; it resembles the frippery and frivolity of a mon-
archical court rather than the capital of a republic ; and what is very
extraordinary, that man who like Sixtus V. before he was a cardinal
and after he was a cardinal assumed a simplicity and modesty and disin-
terestedness both in the sleekness of his tonsure and the homely texture of
his garments ; whose table rivalled the primitive pastors of the church in
scanty viands ; and whose threshold was never trodden by the foot of
revelry or satiety ; — marvellous it is, Mr. Gallatin is a courtier, acts
the petit maitre with as much vivace as if he had meant to enter into a
competition with the Secretary of State. A droll fellow who drove the
stage coach from Washington towards Baltimore uttered an anecdote one
night which as it serves to illustrate the alteration I shall note tho' it is
perhaps a little too severe and illnatured, tho' certainly characteristic ; a
traveller sitting along side me, asked the driver " who lives in that house?"
— " Lives ! " said the driver, " Lives ! why nobody lives there," " There' s
light in the house " said the traveller — " O yes, the Secretary of the
treasury and his family breathe there," said the Driver. This no doubt
is caricature ; but caricature is often very like the original. The
Driver could not now make so good a joke, for not only the Secretary
lives but he feasts sumptuously every day, and what is more invites
large companies to dine with him. I do not except to a man for living
well, the quantity or quality of his food is nothing to me more than the
form of his nose or his chin. I only notice these particulars, as illus-
trative of the state of things. Your good lady, to whom tender my
most respectful and affectionate wishes, will 1 am sure agree with me
that a change so extraordinary cannot be merely accidental and without
motive.
I could say a great deal more on these subjects ; but I apprehend
I have already tired you. I have, however, done justice to your con-
fidence and to my own motives.
In fine, my dear Sir, I shall maintain as I have done all along my
personal independence in public discussions. My own opinion is that
the Republican party must go to destruction if Mr. Gallatin continues,
43
338 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
and that Mr. Madison will be thrown out at the next election ; this I
do not consider of so much moment on Mr. Madison's account or on
that of the Public interests and the principles of the Government. When
you first came to Washington those gentlemen belonged to a little cabal,
which aimed to influence all public affairs in their own favor. I have
had the proffered friendship and the subsequent enmity of them all in
succession ; this party had a sort of beginning when you were first
in Congress in this city, I believe in 1796. It was composed of an
interest in four States — N. York, Penua. Maryland and Virginia.
Ed. Livingston & A. Burr were the Yorkers — Gallatin and Dallas
were the Pennsylvanians. The Smiths of Maryland and the Nicholases
of Virginia.
This little cabal has been curiously consorted — office and power and
wealth was the aim of every man of them, I need not tell you how they
have succeeded, & how they are now in conflict, I tell you more, it
would not surprize me much to see the fragments reunited — and some
one sacrificed to appease the manes of their pre-existing enmities.
In this State so important a member of the Union, Gallatin acts the
part of the demon of whom we read in Romances ; his influence cannot
extend to any thing but mischief, and when I tell you that the Re-
publican Legion is broken up so as to have not more than three com-
panies in fact, and this thro' the agency of that influence, I need not say
more ; because it marks the character by the tendency of the intrigues.
I would not wound you by telling you particular instances in which the
best of men and republicans in all times are persecuted through this
cabalistical influence. Accept my dear Sir my most grateful &
affectionate respects.
Wm. Duane
To Jefferson. 1
Phil* July 16, 1810
D R . and Respected Sir, — A desire to be preserved in your re-
membrance has often led me to the verge of writing to you, but know-
ing with what anxiety you retired from political concerns and the disgust
you must naturally have felt at the recollection of the baseness you
have seen and the unworthiness which prevails too much in all kinds
of affairs, I preferred rather to trust to the ordinary incidents of my
situation to retain me in your mind than to give you any trouble by
direct letter. I need utter no expressions of my affection and attach-
ment to you, it is not to flatter or to seek favor I ever approached
you even in power ; out of power, my attachment has not abated be-
cause you have no favor to bestow ; and it is with pain that I now in-
trude upon your retired life with the enclosed paper, which is taken
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 339
from a pamphlet published on the motion of Earl Grey by the house of
Lords. There is a letter now in this city from Gobbet referring to this
correspondence which has made some matter for discourse, and which
has led me to seek the pamphlet. I presume it will be generally circu-
lated here, as I understand it has been already on the continent of Europe,
What the impression will be on the feelings and interests of the
Virtuous part of the nation, it is not difficult to conceive ; but what the
impression may be on the wicked, or rather the use which they make
of it upon the weak, is not so easy to guess. I very much fear the
effect of any man's influence, who could be capable of such villainous
disregard of your name and reputation, and the sentiment I believe will
be very general, whenever it comes before the public.
For myself, the emotions which this letter has excited are not very
easily described ; if the same feelings operate upon all those who revere
you for your virtues and services ; what is to become of the adminis-
tration, and what is of more importance the principles which elevated
the administration to trust, and by which alone the country can remain
free and happy.
I very much fear that the course of politics indicated by this letter
and other transactions of late date, will tend to involve our country
in great calamities ; which, had your policy been faithfully pursued
and maintained, we would have been assured against with all the world
at our side. I cannot suffer myself to intrude more upon you, if I were
satisfied that my writing to you would [not ?] interfere with your wishes
to keep aloof from political vexations, I should certainly write you very
largely on the subject of public affairs, which I very much fear are now
in an unhappy train.
I do not wish to obtain any opinions or answers of any kind for any
use, but the gratification of my own feelings towards you and to know
that I am not forgotten by you. At a future day I shall take the liberty
of assigning to you my motive for relinquishing the honorable station
in the army which your confidence and kindness placed me in ; I can
say that as far as I had authority and command, no man of the same
rank performed so much duty nor endeavoured more to serve the public ;
this I think it fit to say to you, and I believe I have never forfeited
my veracity with you. For your confidence and kindness to me be
assured of my grateful remembrance, and as ever of the most ardent
desire to render myself worthy of your continued Esteem. Ever
dearest and respected Sir, your obed*. Serv 1 .
To Jefferson.
Phil* Aug. 17. 1810.
D H & Respected Sir, — I have had the satisfaction to receive your
very kind letter of the 12 instant. It is singular enough that I should
340 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
have before me at the moment, a history of England in 4to, which I
take to be the same which you mention. Several years ago you men-
tioned the same book to me, and through Mr. G. P>ving then in
London I obtained the book before me. Having just completed my
Military Dictionary this day, I was turning over in my mind what book
to put in hand; and I took this to look at it and give it a perusal in the
intervals of my ordinary occupations. The book before me makes
exactly 834 pages, and down to 1801. The last paragraph begins
thus — "The master of his majesty's hunt prepared, &c," the 551 st
page closes with The Bill of Rights and 552 begins Eara IV cap. 1.
with William and Mary. I am thus particular, that you may be able
to determine whether it is the same work or not; as it is my fixed
purpose to print it.
The other work which you are so good as to mention, if sent on, I
can have put into hand immediately ; there is no difficulty in obtaining
good translators here at present, and I will accept it with great satis-
faction, and send you the proofs as you propose. I contemplated writ-
ing to you frequently, but having heard of your desire to be retired,
and it was reported that you even wished to remove to another part of
Virginia, I concluded upon denying myself the grateful feelings which
writing to or thinking of your generous and unabating friendship always
produces rather than be one among the intruders upon your tranquillity.
The paper I sent you and the perilous character of the times overcame
my scruples. I shall not say anything to you on political affairs, for
the same reasons that I have not before written you ; and pursuing the
same principles and preserving under a more prosperous state of my
personal affairs that independence which I maintained when in circum-
stances heavily embarrassed ; I shall with the best capacity and the
most steadfast purpose in my humble proviuce do every thing in my
power for the good of my country. If I mistake, as on some occasions
I have done, it will be only to discover the error and I shall not be too
proud nor so dishonest as not to correct it.
You may remember that I once proposed printing your Notes. I
hold myself bound by that promise, and am now ready for it. If the
Book (Baxter's Hume) be the same that I have got, I shall be able to
put it to press very soon ; paper must be had in advance, and that
requires at least two months preparation.
The work from the French, I would go on with instantly having
now only an Edition of Lind on Warm Climates, at press, to fill up the
intervals of my Military Dictionary, which last being finished leaves
me at liberty to go on with another. You have seen I make no doubt
David Williams Lectures upon Montesquieu, from whom indeed I first
learned to think of Montesquieu, as your commentator seems to think.
There is another circumstance upon which I meant to write you on
1906.1 LETTEKS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 341
some day. It was mentioned to me, that on your passage through this
city several years ago, Dr. Franklin put into your hands a manuscript,
intreating you to keep it, and as the fittest person to trust it to ; that
you' returned it, and it was put into your hands again ; but that on the
death of that great man, you conceived yourself bound to put the manu-
script in the hands of Mr. Temple Franklin as his grandfather's
Legatee ; and thus it is lost to the world, unless a copy of it was pre-
served by you for posterity ■ it was suggested to me that this was the
case ; from what I learn of Mr. T. F's course in Paris, there appears
to me no hope of the most valuable part of the Doctor's writings ever
appearing; and it would be at least useful, if no copy exists, to be
certain that this anecdote is truly stated. I have obtained from the
venerable Cha 3 . Thomson, the Journals of Dr. F. Mr. Adams and Mr.
Jay ; but Mr. Adams's late publications show how scanty his officially
registered journal was. I was promised some more but although I have
kept the Edition back now 18 months, with 4 volumes already printed
ready for delivery, under [expectation] of gaining more materials for the
biography, I have been disappointed. Perhaps you may possess frag-
ments concerning him, epistolary or otherwise, that at a favorable
moment you might oblige me with. I should have paid you my
respects personally long since had I not determined to consider your
resolutions in preference to my own wishes.
I understood you intimated to some friend that there was antimony
some where in your neighborhood, and that Mr. Tho": M. Randolph had
also mentioned it. Independent of my solicitude to see the art of type
founding flourish ; I have thought of making a type founder of Benj. F.
Bache's second son — who we here call from his remarkable likeness to
his Gr father — little Dr. Franklin; the boy has all the acuteness and
expansion of mind of the original ; I have not been indifferent to keep
the spark within him alive to all that is good and I derive unutterable
delight to see the little flock mingled with my own rising above adver-
sity and expelling the clouds with which the Aurora was surrounded
when we met. The eldest son of Benjamin who has finished with
eclat, distinguished above his compeers, the collegiate education which
is acquired in our miserable university, is a fine young man and as
virtuous as any in the country ; he is already as t{ ]\ as his father, pos-
sesses all his sedateness and virtue. I believe him as innocent of every
kind of vice as a child of four years old. I am yet undetermined what
course to put [him] into, he is at present going through a course of
historical reading, in which I have been his pilot, and geographer, and
annotator. The other two boys of Benj. are equally promising.
The Pestalozzi system proceeds with effect that will render it indU-
tructihle and get it but once into general use — there is an end to error.
Mr. Neef who conducts it seems as if there had been some particular
342 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY [May,
providence to prepare him for an undertaking so immensely important
and requiring so many qualities of head and heart to fit him for it.
I have a little fellow of 5^ years old with him, who already confounds
me. I apprehend that very little is known of this inappreciable system
and man. His book certainly gives a faithful outline ; but it is a feeble
shade compared with the actual figure. If you could be amused with
any account of it from me, it will afford me delight to give you some
account of it as I see it, but I do not wish to trouble you with it, nor
would I take the trouble unless I was sure it would be gratifying to
you.
Do me the favor to assure Mr. & Mrs. M. Randolph of my most
sincere respects.
I am Dr Sir ever affecty yours.
To Jefferson. 1
Phil* Oct. 29tb 1810.
Respected Sir, — I have just received the returned parcel of
Manuscript. My motive for sending now the translation in the first
instance was that you might judge and if you had leisure correct to your
mind. My intention is to send you on the manuscript as fast as trans-
lated and I can transcribe it ; I am not perfectly satisfied myself with
the manner of the translation ; it is very difficult unless to a person
equally conversant in both languages ; there are some passages very
difficult. I fear that on this account it will be to you more troublesome
than I could wish it to be ; the translation is generally too dry and
frigid for the original ; and the whys and wherefores and moreovers
are too frequent for the English idiom. The work the more I peruse
[it] the more I am gratified and impressed with its importance, and feel
a solicitude to see it before the public. The journeymen printers hav-
ing what they call struck for wages, I have no book printing now going
on, nor can I have until they return, or I teach boys the lighter parts
of the printing art ; I mention this in order to shew that it is not
through affectation or false delicacy I mention, that should it be suita-
ble to you to pass over the whole, that I shall continue to send it as
fast as I can transcribe it.
I sent you along with the packet David Williams lectures on Mon-
tesquieu, they are not equal to the ideas and lucid illustrations, nor to
the genius that marks the Review of Montesquieu ; but they were bold
in England ; I have a duplicate of it, and intend the copy sent as a
small mark of my wish to contribute even in the slightest degree to
your rational gratification. I have a copy of his pamphlet on liberty
also, which tho' good in its day, and very good in a few pages, is not
worth troubling you with.
* Jeff. MSS.
1006.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 343
We have a number of persons lately arrived from different parts of
the British dominions here, whose accounts exhibit pictures not merely
deplorable but horrible — the crisis of that Government is certainly at
hand, and it must be for the benefit of mankind.
Some of the Russian under agents here appear in discourse very
remarkably attached to G. B. and his policy. I refer to one particu-
larly and that is Mr. Politika, a young man who really imagines he
knows every thing in and about this country as well as if he had spent
his life here. I only mention this fact, because from a correspondence
you were once so good as to mention, I infer it may be kept up, and it
may not be amiss to understand from a sure source the dispositions of
agents. The conduct of Dashkoff appears uncommonly discreet and
sensible. I know them both. Politika's temper I discovered in a
conversation on Walsh's pamphlet, which requires to be answered.
I am D r Sir with affection and respect.
To Jefferson. 1
Phila Jan. 25, 1811
D K and Respected Sir, — I have just received yours of the 18 th
and the copy accompanying it. You will be good enough never to
attribute my not writing immediately to want of respect or to indif-
ference. My avocations are so many and the pressure of them so con-
stant, that it requires some dexterity to get thro' them. I shall now
explain the hastiness of the last sheets. You will perceive they are all
transcribed by myself. The person who began has translated the
whole,, but it was not well done tho' he is capable. I am not perfectly
competent to translate it myself, tho' I can very well judge both of the
French and English whether it is well done. I therefore made the
work a practical essay for myself, as well to enjoy the gratification it
afforded me as to make my knowledge of the French better, and thus
I have not merely transcribed, but I have as it were made the version
throughout. Thus much will explain why I did not send the French
original, and why I shall with your leave keep it to refer to, till the
work is printed, which will be now very soon. It will be necessary,
and since you approve of the manner, I shall be able with more confi-
dence to remedy the defects of the latter part, of w ich I was conscious,
but being anxious to hurry the whole on to you, and having no assistant
of any kind to write or aid me in my paper at this critical time, and
the foreman in the Aurora office who by knowing my mind was able to
decypher all I wrote however hurried, and besides saved me the read-
ing of proofs, of which I feel the labor as much as the celebrated Bayle,
I have hurried the whole on depending too much on the translator, or
rather not having time sufficient to chasten and arrange the language.
i Jeff. MSS.
34-i MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
I bespoke 5 months since from Binny and Ronaldson a fount of types
to print the work elegantly — they have not yet put them in. These
men are among the instances of fortunes caprices, they have acquired
fortune by industry, and it has ruined them as men. I never knew men
more estimable for simplicity and probity — they are now the reverse.
I have applied to Mr. Carr, the best printer in this city, to undertake
the printing for me of this work, for I was fool enough to empty all
my half worn types into a heap and send them to B. & Ronaldson
when type metal was scarce, and now I have no type of the size to
print it upon — so that necessity on one hand and a desire to push the
work out soon, has induced me to do this ; I have not had his answer
yet ; but I shall if he cannot get it done by some one else.
I am thus prolix in order that nothing may be unexplained.
I shall go through the copy as it goes to the printer with the original
in my hands and shall correct before I deliver it — and shall take care
of the latter sheets.
I have published one of the Chapters on money which has excited
attention, tho' it was from a very indifferent translation.
I have not been successful in my enquiries for the letter of Helvetius,
or the Work of the Abbe de la Rochon, nor unless there should be
some of the literary Frenchmen in N. York do I expect to succeed.
Poor Warden is gone on to Washington in great tribulation — the
intriguing there is afflicting to hear of. I sometimes begin to despair
of the republic when I see so much villainy successful and so much
virtue repressed and put down.
J. Randolph is at his old freaks. He took his seat the 22, and intro-
duced two pointers with him, which set up a barking when the members
rose to speak. No one dared to turn the dogs out. The house ad-
journed ; poor Willis Alston going out the dogs got between his legs,
and had nearly thrown him down ; he struck the dogs, and John Ran-
dolph who had a hickory stick beat Alston several times over the head
and shoulders. Alston rushed upon him and some blows took place —
but the members separated them.
I do not like to trouble you with politics, but I cannot resist guarding
you against impressions concerning me. Mr. G. W. Erving passing
thro' here told me that it was believed in Washington that some of
your nearest friends were persuaded that I had entered into some
arrangements with Gen. Armstrong to promote him to the Presidency.
You have seen and known me in times of peril and how little influence
personal or pecuniary considerations have had on me ; I have not the
same confidence because I was neither as well known nor had the same
opportunities of being known as when you were at Washington. I
think it fit to say to you whose esteem I covet and value more than any
other that I ever possessed — that there is no foundation for such an
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 345
idea. I have no personal views, and should the Bank be chartered, I
may close my business here. I mean in that event to dispose of the
Aurora to any capable person who will purchase it of the same princi-
ples, and abandon a situation which is productive of many enmities, few
friendships, and no adequate rewards ; while I continue in the station
no man on earth could induce me to say or do what I think wrong,
and I know no rule of action but that which to the best of my judgment
conduces to the liberty, independence, and honor of my country. If I
ever take a wrong step it will not be with consciousness that I do so,
and few men in so trying a situation could steer thro' so difficult a
station with so few blunders, and those few of so little moment. You
will see, my dear good sir, my motives in expressing my feelings to
you concerning myself. Ever affectionately and faithfully yours.
That man Granger, disappointed of being nominated as a Judge — and
he is better adapted for the ulterior office of Executive Justice — menaces
to blow up the administration of Mr. Madison, and he has some of his
schemes now in motion for that effect. I have no correspondence with
any member of administration — not even Rodney — but you know I
would not say this without foundation.
To Jefferson^
PHiLf March 15, 1811.
Respected Sir, — I have just received the last packet of the
Manuscript, but it appears as if I was doomed to be the sport and the
victim of my faithful adherence to those principles which that work so
admirably illustrates. I should not invade your merited repose and
happiness, with any complaints of mine, were it not necessary to account
to you for the suspension of the work even after it had been begun. I
have passed thro' the most laborious and intense application that I have
experienced in any period of my [life], having literally devoted myself
to what I conceived the sacred interests and rights of my country. The
printers all. refusing to work, my foreman laid up since November with
a debilitating rheumatism, and with none but raw b<pvs to compose and
print a paper containing more matter and more manuscript matter than
any paper in the country — and not only to write all, unassisted by a
single individual, but to go through the drudgery of proofreading. My
labor was rewarded by the cessation of the Bank and by a consciousness
that my humble efforts had contributed something to that effect.
I was looking forward to an active spring and summer, to the com-
pletion of the life of Franklin, which I flattered myself would do me
no discredit, and be not unworthy of the subject. But I had offended by
1 Jeff. MSS.
44
346 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
the sincerity and the severity of my animadversions upon the conduct
of Mr. John Randolph, and I am brought to the verge of a precipice,
from which it is not possible to say whether I shall escape bsing dashed
to pieces. I have formerly mentioned to you the cruel consequences which
ensued from my making the establishment at Washington, and the cruel
persecution set on foot by J. G. Jackson and Mat. Lyon, which left me
with an establishment that cost 22000 $ all a debt incurred and unpaid,
when at the moment that promised to be profitable, the cruel infidelity
of the Republicans to a faithful centinel left it next to useless, and
compelled me to abandon it to another for a sum not one third of what
it cost me.
As my Credit was derived from Banks, I was obliged to have in-
dorsers, and I have during these ten years been in the situation of
a man who in a small company saw himself exposed to the vollies of
a numerous enemy, and the little band either sinking one by one into
the slumber of death or flying into the arms of the enemy and turn-
ing their weapons upon me, until at length I find myself without ever
once abandoning a principle or betraying any confidence ever reposed
in me, standing almost alone.
The friendship which subsisted between Mr. Joseph Clay and myself
you cannot have been at least a stranger to. The sentiments entertained
by Mr. Thomas Leiper, you well know concerning me. I am the same
in every respect, but they are no longer my friends — in short they
menace me at this moment with ruin.
When Mr. Clay could not obtain credit for 100 dollars at any Bank
here, my credit and name obtained for him from five to eight thousand
dollars. Since his father's death he has released me from this share of
burden, but he had as men fell off from the republican ranks stept into
their shoes until he became my endorser for 5000 $, part of the debt
incurred at Washington and for which I have been paying interest ever
since. Mr. Leiper in the same way became my indorser for 3000 $.
The various attempts of the U. S. Bank to ruin me have all failed as
I took care never to have any account with them. From the other
banks I could have had and was invited to take but did not take
10,000 $ more than I had ever required. The following events have
taken place within four days.
I applied for about 1000 $ out of about 15000 that had been due to
me at the Treasury Comptroller's department for some years. The Con-
troller was prepared to pay, but the Secretary of the Treasury made
application at all the other offices to know it I had any unsettled accounts.
Simmons the War office accountant reported that I had an unsettled ac-
count, but I never had any account with him nor in his branch of public
duty. I had raised a number of recruits here for which I drew 1700 $ and
expended 1676 $ for which I furnished the vouchers — leaving on that
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 347
account a balance of 24 $. But long before that I had caused 100 $
to be deposited with the Paymaster Mr. Brent, who reported to the
Controller that there was not any likelihood of my owing any thing ;
In fact I left two months pay undrawn, and I never presented a contin-
gent account, so that instead of my owing there will be due to me about
400 $ from the War Department. This 1000 $ which I required was
to meet an engagement here.
The next day after advice of this Mr. Leiper notified me that he
would no longer lend me his name.
The same day Mr. Joseph Clay wrote a letter to my bookkeeper of
which the following is an exact copy.
(copy)
Sir The causes of my refusal are the groundless and unwarrantable
attacks in the Aurora on my friends ; particularly on Mr. Randolph.
I never will lend the support of my name to such conduct. If Mr. Duane
chooses to continue it, he must look to others for relief. Mr. Duane is
at perfect liberty to pursue that course of political conduct which to him
may seem correct; but the abuse of men whom I esteem cannot be
either a necessary or justifiable means of convincing the public of the
wisdom of any measures of which he may become the advocate. I am,
Sir, your obed Ser\
(Signed) Joseph Clay
March 13. 1811.
Of the letter I need say nothing, but the effect of this combined
denial of my property at the treasury, this odious persecution of Mr.
Leiper and Mr. Clay, leave me unable to raise 9000 $, for their con-
duct is no secret and Mr. Leiper has avowed his purpose to put down, the
Aurora !
This history is prolix, but I know no one to whom I can relate it
so properly as yourself, who know my principles and my public conduct ;
this is the more barbarous on the part of Mr. Clay inasmuch as he was
one of my predecessor's trustees and guardians of those children whom
instead of the public I have honorably and affectionrtely reared ; they
must suffer the same fate with me, because Mr. Dallas has given it as
his opinion that the children of Ben. F. Bache cannot inherit any part,
of Dr. Franklin's estate ! His daughter having married one of the
brothers of my predecessor!
I am aware that this narrative will give you some pain, but my dear
Sir, to whom must I pour out my feelings if not to you whom those
that are faithful to the republic love and with whose esteem I have been
so particularly favored.
I have advertised my property in books for sale, but I cannot owing
to the presence of foreign commercial affairs upon the community not
348 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOKICAL SOCIETY. [May,
been able to make any sale tho' I offered books to the value of ten
thousand dollars for 5000 cash, or even for endorsements for nine or 12
months, by which time I should be able to repay the whole with interest.
The four volumes of Franklin's works with plates are all printed and
at two and a half dollars a volume, these alone are worth 20,000
dollars. I have even offered them at a reduced price engaging or for-
feit the whole to have the Memoirs written and printed by the 4 th of
July next.
Here I can look to no one. Is there not in Virginia where I have been
so much flattered for my public services public spirit to interpose and
save the Aurora and its Editor from the fangs of John Randolph's
creature. I would not accept a present from any man, I would beg
sooner than be the slave of any man's monied present ; but I should
accept of a loan of 8000 dollars which I should repay with interest in
the course of the present year, would save me from the danger that
impends, and which I can barely ward off from day to day perhaps
for eight or ten days, and even then with difficulty.
The effect on the Republican interest, you must be sensible will not
be a little should I be ruined. I have already suffered enough from
the instability of public men and their disregard of the services of an
incorruptible and inflexible man in support of the vital interests of the
nation.
In this situation, respected Sir, it is impossible for me to say when
I shall be able to proceed with the commentary on Montesquieu. If
free from this I should go on immediately and once free from this di-
lemma, should never place myself in the power of the caprice of any
man again.
I trust that with your usual kindness this will meet indulgence.
With affectionate respect
Yours ever faithfully.
If 80 gentlemen would lend me 100 dollars each, payable in 9, 12, 15
months, it would not only save me, but I should be able to pay it in
cash in these periods and get out of Bank altogether. It is to those in
whom I have confidence and who have confidence in me that I can ven-
ture to make such suggestions. If I were a villain I need have no
pecuniary necessity.
To Jefferson}
Phil* July 5, 1811
Sir, — By the Mail of this day, I forward you a single copy of the
Review of Montesquieu. I hope you will find it executed in a style of
neatness not discreditable to the work nor to the American press. By
printing it on a larger type and a smaller page, it might have been
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 349
made a large volume, but I believe it will be considered as preferable
in its present form by those who prefer a book for its contents rather
than by weight or measure.
I have ventured to place two short paragraphs from Hobbes and
Beccarria, as mottoes to the title page, containing applicable truths, and
at least not inconsistent with its spirit; it was done merely to comply
with a fashion rather than any other motive.
The price which I have put it to sale at is governed by two consid-
erations, the expense incurred and the expense to be incurred in
circulating it. I have printed 750 copies, and must pay 25 per cent
out of the price only for circulating it, that being the sum agreed upon
with the man I employ to obtain subscribers and deliver works ; should
this edition sell sufficiently soon, it will determine whether or not it
would be advisable to print another edition at a lower price, and that
will be known by the demand and the impression which the work
makes; it is too soon to form any judgment here, as my political sins
of several years prevents the light of my door from being darkened by
federal shadows.
I trust you will excuse my not having written in answer to your two
letters of 28 March and May 1. They excited in my breast very pain-
ful feelings, and as I could not touch the subjects to which they related
without expressing my sentiments explicitly and fairly, I judged it
preferable to be silent, perfectly satisfied with my own integrity and
indifferent to the frowns or favors of mankind thus fortified.
If the book is in the form which you suggested as adapted for send-
ing abroad, I shall send you the ten copies which you were pleased to
order ; or if there should be any other form of binding or putting
together, with thinner covers in the manner of French works, I shall
have them executed to your wish, having bookbinders in my own house.
I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient ser 1 -
To Jefferson}
^hila. July 17, 1812
Respected Sir, — I should have answered yolr obliging letter of
the 20 th April, had my mind not been kept in agitation by the pressure
which I began to feel heavily in consequence of my opposition to the
U. S. Bank, and which, although I have in effect surmounted, has left
me like a man after a severe disease, with an unusual degree of debility.
I had read your admirable work on the batture before I was favored with
a copy from yourself, and I have heard it repeatedly spoken of in terms
very graceful to my own feelings and honorable to you. I think you
have extinguished that unfortunate man, who has caused himself to be
extinguished.
i Jeff. MSS.
350 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY". [May,
When you wrote, I still hesitated as to the probability of war. I did
not know how we could avoid it, but I did not see how we could go
into it, from causes that are too obvious. I was at the same time per-
fectly convinced that if we should once get into a war, that altho' we
should, from temporary as well as general causes, sustain some disasters
and afflictions, that we should be triply benefitted in the result ; and
that the entire extinction of the poisonous influence of England would
alone compensate every loss. The apprehension I entertained was that
from the universal consent of all men and all parties, of men in and
men out of power, on the incompetency of the head of the War Depart-
ment, that there would be an indisposition to enter upon a war, with
this incompetency existing and present. I spent a fortnight at Wash-
ington in April, whither I went to sell my lot and house on Penn?
avenue, which I did to Mr. Gales. During that time I published a
small pamphlet of which I send you a copy ; the extraordinary effect it
produced on men's minds I cannot describe, but it has produced a law
correcting almost every thing pointed out as to the organization ; and
the system of discipline which induced me to notice the subject at all
has been since withdrawn and is now undergoing another metamor-
phose. I certainly dreaded the effect of a war under such incompetent
hands as D" Eustis, and I dread it still ; it is indeed fortunate that
there is no formidable laud force in our neighborhood nor to be appre-
hended, tho' I find by this day's mail a fleet of transports with troops
has arrived at Quebec (103 Reg'). You would scarcely credit what I
could tell you and what I could point out in the military department —
and the extravagant waste that will follow the present confusion and
want of system in that department. I have sought to make it known
to the Executive through various channels without any visible effect;
and I see no probability of any correction but in some fatal disaster
when public indignation will force the imbecile man to abandon a sta-
tion which he ought never to have accepted, and in which more cor-
ruption of the principles of the government and discredit and dishonor
has been inflicted on the government than in any equal period from the
establishment of the Constitution.
It would give you more pain than I should wish to give any one I
respect, to go into particular details ; or to attempt any anticipation of
the consequences. I have determined for myself not to meddle with
any public questions, but in a general way, maintaining the rights of
the nation, the prosecution of the war, and supporting those principles
upon which the republicans came into power in 1798, for tho' I have
been sacrificed and in fact persecuted and nearly ruined by those whose
promotion was aided by my services and sufferings, yet the principles
are to me and will ever be as sacred as my life and honor.
I sent you a copy of my Infantry Hand Book by which I meant to
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 351
supply what was so much wanted in the country ; and I now send you
another for Riflemen. Such are the works that are wanted throughout
the country ; they disrobe military subjects of the mystery in which
ignorance and cunning have involved them. I should publish a hand
book for cavalry and another for Artillery upon the same principles,
but my funds do not admit it ; and I presume since I have been
considered in the opposition, it would not be consistent with affairs of
state to give the writings of a suspected heretic in politics any counte-
nance in war, I feel mortified and humiliated at the conduct I have
personally experienced ; but I have no personal cause for mortification
or humility ; but I cannot but perceive that your happy sentiment that
" men feel power and forget right " is as applicable to those who re-
ceived republican suffrages as to those who received federal. But I
ought not to trouble you, and yet if I do not say what lies at my heart
and which wounds my mind, shall I not be an hypocrite.
I think we may expect a great change in Europe which will materi-
ally affect this nation, not perhaps to her injury but by means that do
not appear to be as yet contemplated here or elsewhere. I imagine
that a change of fortune in the national affairs of England is not very
remote. Such a change as I anticipate will cast upon our shores the
riches and the wreck of British intellect, arts, sciences and manufac-
tures : that the day is not distant when all that England had to boast
of will cease to exist there and be transferred hither. Those who love
tranquillity, who have panted for liberty, who have been bowed down
by taxation ; those who labored without ceasing and slept without
reward only to sleep and wake and eat a miserable subsistence, and
work and sleep again, that vast class will find their way to America,
and transplant with themselves the skill and talents which they possess,
and upon which the power of England has existed for two centuries, or
at least since the revocation of the Edict of Nantz which produced for
England at that period what the madness of England is now preparing
for us. We are destined to be the residuary legatees of British litera-
ture, science, commerce, navigation and perhaps , vower and policy /
How important will it be in the present state of Europe so to regu-
late American diplomacy, as that the legacy which we are destined to
receive shall not also entail upon us the policy of perennial wars and
national hatreds. Such are the faint outlines of some of my anticipa-
tions, which be pleased to receive as they are given with affectionate
respect.
To Madison.
James Madison Esqr Phil a Aug. 6, 1812.
President of the United States.
Sir, — I have been just informed by M r Carswell that he means to
signify by the Morning's Mail, that he cannot accept the office of Com-
352 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
missary General. There is no man more honest than M r Carsewell,
and it is the sense which he entertains of the importance of the
station which induces him to decline its acceptance The same idea of
its importance induces me to take the liberty of addressing you.
A little attention to the duties which must devolve on the Commis-
sary general during a war will shew that it requires something more
than a mere accountant or merchant; during a peace any office may be
filled by common qualifications without danger, but it is otherwise in
such a crisis as the present — and the more necessary it is to carry on
the war with vigor, in order to make it short and decisive, so much
more indispensable will it be to have men in such stations as can give
vigor to the public arm. A Commissary General should have a knowl-
edge of Military affairs — he should know their habits — their wants
and their privations in camp and quarters — the esprit de Corps, or that
sympathy which arises out of association — a knowledge of the country
not merely on the map, but of its roads and means of communication, its
people and peculiar products and resources — a knowledge of arms and
equipments of every kind, he should know at sight what is fit, what
not ; he should know the quality and quantity of ammunition and
stores — and his zeal should be always guarded so as to avert the
consequences of those momentary disasters from which no war can be
exempted — he should be as a second soul to the war department, and
serve as a kind of instinct to that department and the army : a very
honest man might fill the office, and with only an innocent incapacity,
debilitate the army, endanger the public force and ruin himself.
In thus sketching the qualifications of a fit man permit me to suggest,
with the most respectful deference, the name of a gentleman who unites
with all the qualifications I have described the stern integrity of a
private and public character, such a man as the public voice would
applaud, the army confide in, and such as would render credit to your-
self — I mean the present Superintendent of Military stores, M r C.
Irvine, son of the late General W m Irvine. He has served in the
army is known and esteemed in private and public. His zeal for the
public service is every where known, and his probity would be a guar-
antee to the public and to 3'ou, such as is not always to be found in
candidates for public office ; and I am told that at this moment there is
a stir making to press upon you a person of the name of Duncan a
broker of this city, a man whose profession as an agent of Usury, is
not exactly that which is best adapted for a great trust in critical times.
I shall only add that I have neither seen nor conversed with M r
Irvine on this subject — I consider myself as performing an act of duty
to the public, and should I be so fortunate as to have brought into your
view the man qualified & he shall be appointed, I shall feel great pride
and pleasure in the consciousness that I shall have rendered a public
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 353
service to the country, to the army, and to the government of my
country
As this note is intruded on you without the knowledge of a second
person — I beg leave to say, that whatever may be its fate — it shall
remain known only to myself — and I keep no copy.
I am Sir
Your very obed Ser*
W M DUANE
To Jefferson,
Phil* 20. Sep r 1812
Respected Sir, — I should not have troubled your retirement upon
political Subjects had not there been a rumor for some days that you
had consented to accept the Station of Sec ty of State in the present Cri-
sis, and that Mr. Monroe was to assume the War Department ; I must
confess I feared it was too good news to be true, but I cannot refrain
from expressing a wish that if you could consistently with your delib-
erate feelings enter again into the Administration, you would contribute
to the other eminent services which you have rendered your country
and which appears now not only necessary to the public safety but
which would redound to your own eternal honor. The effects of Hull's
surrender are not to be imagined ■ — and some great and decided act of
the Executive appears to be essential in order to turn the current
of public feeling out of the course in which it is running ; your acces-
sion would contribute to produce such a change and to restore public
confidence which is now not merely wavering but in which a great
change has already taken place. The activity of the friends of Mr.
Clinton is unexampled in this State and in other places, and were it
not for the attacks made in their inebriety upon General Armstrong,
they would have made a deeper impression here, for our Electoral
ticket, is not throughout such a one as would on its own worth obtain
a vote ; and it is the apprehension of the return of federal rule which
alone saves M r Madison's administration from desertion by the great
mass of the most intelligent and virtuous part of tin republicans.
If you were to accept the office, I should say all I think to you on
the subject of public affairs, as far as the Executive administration is
concerned ; but as you cannot but feel a solicitude about the work to
the erection of which you have so largely contributed; I shall only tell
you generally what I should go into particular specifications of under
different circumstances.
It cannot be doubted after a view of the whole ground, that the
means possessed have not been applied with either sagacity, activity,
industry or common sense in any branch of the War arrangements ;
and it is a melancholy truth, that any man disposed to make use of the
transactions in the military branch of the government and to compare
45
35-1 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
it with the most imbecile or extravagant part of M r Adams's adminis-
tration, that the picture could be drawn with tenfold hideousness.
Let me add that to this moment the military affairs are in a state of
disorder and so destitute of system, that among the troops there is a
dismal despondency, not well adapted to assure that decided effect
which our arms ought to produce.
A change in that course of public duties appears to me not merely
essential to the public safety, but to the security of the policy which is
characterized by your name, and to which the great body of the nation
is unquestionably attached.
The preparation within a few weeks has no doubt been greater than
at any former period, but this I attribute to the interference of Col.
Monroe with his aid and zeal in the War Depar 1 and the laborious
efforts of the Adj 1 General Gushing. But it is a solemn truth that the
Southern Department, with the exception of Wilkinson's limitted com-
mand is not yet organized, altho' it is now three months since the
declaration of war; and the force on the Northern frontier collects so
slowly that there will be scarcely time to establish any discipline, or for
the General to know the character of the officers under him before the
Canadian fleets will render the access to that country either as easy as
would be now practicable, or as it would have been two months ago.
I do not tell you these things to find fault — I only state the facts
to shew the necessity of providing against the consequences — -for no
intelligent man can shut his eyes against them, and a despondency is
the consequence where despondency is most dangerous, in the breasts
of the most disinterested and virtuous men.
The consequences require also to be looked into — the agents of the
British are as numerous as ever — they shoulder us in the streets and
abuse the government unchecked in our coffee houses — the enemy will
be as well informed as we are — and perhaps better — of our situa-
tion j and it is proper to anticipate what they are likely to attempt, and
to consider how we are prepared to meet their assaults.
Their naval force will enable them to select such points on our coasts
as are most exposed or best adapted to injure or distract us — from the
rebellious temper in the East nothing can be apprehended singly —
nothing could be apprehended, even if a British force were landed, if
proper means were pursued & a competent head in the War Office to
direct the means of repelling the traitors within and their allies from
without. Suppose the British transport during the Winter 10000 men
to Halifax, and taking 5000 of them on board the ships of War hoist a
standard on some part of our Eastern coast — they would call those 5
ten thousand and the credulity of their adherents and of their enemies
would readily double their force — These things are practicable, I do
not say many would join them but the effect is what I wish to guard
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 355
against. Are there any steps taken — ought not steps to be taken to
guard against such events. On the subject of the South, I shall say
nothing. General Wilkinson presented a memoir last April to the
War Department on the defence of the South, of which D r Eustis
unhappily is incompetent to appreciate the importance, and it is to be
feared that if an attack should be made on the East or on the South,
our foresight will be as at Machilimackinac a deplorable improvidence.
I am not accustomed to feel so gloomy as I do on such subjects but
I am not alone — I know no feelings but those which lend to the happi-
ness and safety of my country — I have taken the liberty of expressing
myself to M r Monroe with the same freedom on similar subjects — and
I know my frankness will meet the usual indulgence with you — but a
change in, the War Department appears to me indispensible to the
public safety and the security of the approaching Election. Ever with
love and respect.
Yours
W M DUANE.
To Madison.
James Madison Esq Phil a Sep r 20 1812
President of the U States
Sir, — The enclosed has been accidentally soiled, as it was written
at midnight — and I have not it in my power to transcribe it — nor
indeed to read it — I beg to be excused — I should prefer its being
confined to yourself and Mr Monroe, as I am not so solicitous about
any thing concerning it as the important subject to which it refers —
and it is to be considered as a private communication — Nor do I look
for an answer — the freedom of it you will please to excuse.
I am Sir
Your obed Ser*
W M DUANE.
To Madison.
James Madison Esq r Phil a Sep r 20, 1812
President of the U States
Sir, — If I did not believe that the motive which actuates me would
justify me even under the possibility of my conceptions being errone-
ous, and that you would receive the suggestions of an individual who
has no other views than the general and common interest I should not
venture to address you. The efforts of the humblest individual may at
least contribute to the direction of the executive mind towards objects
of great public importance ; and I address you without reserve under
these impressions.
The letter of General Hull goes to vindicate the administration in
856 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May.
every thing that relates to the unhappy events at Detroit, except in the
single point of the neglect of Machilimackinac ; and altho' this cannot
justify the misconduct of the officer, it is a point upon which he may
escape every imputation but that of incapacity or cowardice.
I offer this opinion with no other view than to indicate the absolute
necessity of being provident on other vulnerable points, and in doing
this I must attempt to anticipate by first considering what is possible,
the necessity of guarding against what is probable.
The U. States may be assailed at its two extremities, that is at some
point of Florida or Louisiana on the South, and at some point between
the Long island Sound and the Bay of Casco, or between N. York and
Portsmouth in N. Hampshire. The necessary means for the defence
of the South I have no doubt have been properly pointed out by the
able officer who has charge of N. Orleans ; if the government have pro-
vided the means requisite there, and in such hands there is no doubt
of their being well managed, it will be unnecessary to touch a point so
much better occupied. But the most vulnerable point at this moment
is the section on the East which I have referred to.
What renders it particularly indispensible at this time and not an
hour should be lost, is the peculiar circumstances of the Eastern states
and the facilities which their superior naval force afford to the enemy
to select any point of that section of the Union upon which they may
think fit to make an impression.
I do not believe that disaffection is either so extensive as the sedi-
tious in that quarter represent, nor do I think that left to themselves
without external influence, their clamors or the most treasonable efforts
they could make would end in any other than their own destruction and
the greater security of the government.
But as in all political affairs, as well as in military affairs, the effects
of human passions acted upon by sudden and alarming events must be
always taken into view, it may be safely assumed that the landing of a
force of some three to five thousand troops of the enemy on any point of
that section would encourage disaffection, and what is most to be appre-
hended, appal the virtuous. The effect need not be minutely examined,
it is within the measure of every man's conception.
But it may be presumed that as the disaffection is more in clamor
than in reality, there is not so much danger. This would be just rea-
soning if we had any reasons to think the British government to be
wiser now or less credulous when their wishes were their counsellors
than at former periods. If we wanted any evidence to satisfy us, the
speeches in the Parliament of England in the last Session, the mission of
Henry, and the audacious insolence and temerity of the adherents of
England in our seaports and at the Seat of the government itself, would
declare that the British government calculates largely on the disaffec-
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 357
tion in all parts of the Union, but particularly in the three maritime
states next adjoining to N York. That they will act in some shape
upon these calculations I believe there can be no doubt, whether they
will resort to private emissaries and largesses, or to public offers of
Alliance and association with those States ; or whether they will employ
their naval force to land an army on the Eastern coasts is uncertain ; I
think they will attempt all these means. It may be very truly urged,
that they could derive no permanent advantage from such attempts ;
that they would be driven off in disgrace or their troops compelled to
surrender ; or that they could not send a force sufficient for any durable
conquest. But admitting all these results as certain, the event is not
the whole of the consideration, they could accomplish great and heavy
afflictions — they would" paralyse the efforts and obstruct the resources
of prosperity over a large surface of country ; the alarm would be
even greater than the danger or the evil perpetrated but the evil
would not be wholly local, its effects would be felt to the extreme of
the union as the disastrous but comparatively trivial event at Detroit
now is.
It may be well to consider what they can and may do. This impor-
tance which they necessarily and truly attach to the Station of Halifax,
superadded to the importance of Quebec will induce them to send out a
considerable force to Halifax, arriving early they might enter the St
Lawrence at any time in the ensuing month of October, vessels to my
knowledge have entered in November, and a vessel has been known to
sail early in December ; however, they can enter Halifax at any season.
They may upon ten ships of war and 20 transports send 10000 men
to Halifax! They can provision them by the temptations which they
have held forth to the avarice of our people to carry provisions to
Bermuda or direct to Halifax ; but even if provisions should not be
abundant they would then have a fresh stimulant to keep their troops
in action and discipline, to transport a body of 5000 to some part of our
coasts where by the previous advices of their 1 emissaries they would
find means to subsist their troops or satiate their rapacity.
Perhaps by an understanding with their friends they may not at first
touch Boston ; but the greater probability is that their first attempts
would be in that quarter ; but secure within Cape Cod with a superior
fleet they could select any place in that Bay particularly Plymouth ;
the waters of Rhode Island and all along the Sound to New Rochelle
they might depredate without danger, and land troops under cover of
their ships, 5000 men landed on Long Island could carry off every
thing upon it and bombard and lay N. York in ashes, and retire before
any force competent to resist them could be brought to act.
I draw this sketch rapidly tho its scope is extensive, because altho'
they could not operate on all that line of coast at once, yet they having
358 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
the choice of the point of attack it is indispeusible to consider how far
and how much they may be able to go and do.
That such is the course a powerful and skilful enemy would pursue,
I believe will admit of no question ; and without supposing them to
possess all the skill in the world, it can hardly be presumed that
they are so little acquainted with the management of military opera-
tions as to overlook such advantages as our circumstances present to
them.
These views press upon the consideration of the government the
importance of an early and adequate preparation against such contin-
gencies ; and there [are] other motives no less cogent which call imperi-
ously for effective and prompt preparations.
Measures of prevention are of all others the most wise ; they do not
carry the eclat of victory but they secure the consolations of virtue ;
they do good by preventing evil. The means by which I would guard
against them, is by acting upon the offensive. I would not wait for his
assault, I would compel him to remain within his stronghold, if I could
do no better ; but if I could take it from him, I would prefer it, but at
any events I would keep him so effectually in check that he should not
be capable of moving without danger, and I should thereby protect
myself.
In a paper which I published a few days ago, I threw out a loose
sketch of these conceptions, but I confess there was an object upon which
1 ivould not publicly touch, which is of no less moment, perhaps of the
greatest moment. I shall state it when I have suggested the means to
which I would have recourse.
I would embody and encamp a force of 10000 men in two divisions ;
5000 regulars, 5000 Volunteers, or such Militia as would perform a
tour of duty for six months, in which case they should go at the end
of every month after the first three, one thousand men, and be suc-
ceeded by 1000, who should be as exactly disciplined as the regulars ;
with these corps, I should threaten to march to Quebec in the first in-
stance by the Kennebeck & Chaudiere ; but I should by marches of
discipline change their direction and menace Halifax ; if Halifax should
be found accessible (and I know it is) it might be taken after two or
three feints; — if not taken the troops would at least be disciplined to
war by the movements, and the enemy apprized of the state of prepara-
tion would be cautious of exposing his post by sending his troops upon
marauding expeditions or to be taken by a force so much more capable
from its local advantages of repelling them.
I need not point out the advantages to discipline, and to the acquisition
of an efficient force for any service, the embodying a compact army of 1 0000
men would prove. But what I before referred to is the importance
of having it embodied in the very neighborhood of disaffection — its
1906.] LETTEKS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 359
presence without a single act of rigor, its discipline without being
employed on any other duty, would not only destroy every disposition to
treason, but it would disconcert the enemy by occupying the very
ground upon which he had been invited to raise his standard.
A force of this kind would attract attention, the faithful citizen would
feel a confidence which he is now a stranger to — the army itself would
circulate its pay and give activity to local industry ; the voice of patri-
otism would be heard where treason now mutters curses upon the
government which is too mild to punish it, and the operations in other
quarters would instead of being interrupted or weakened, they would
derive confidence and strength from the very knowledge that such a
force existed.
I have expressed what I conceive to be in itself more important than
I can describe it — but I sincerely believe it would be a measure of
the greatest importance in all the views in which I have presented it.
I am Sir with great respect
Your obed Ser 1
W M Duane
The two parties opposed to the present administration, who had
delegates at Lancaster — have quarreled and separated in ill blood —
without agreeing on any object relative to the Governmental or
Presidential election — a good omen.
To Jefferson.
Phil a Feb. 14. 1813
Respected Sir, — I could not before this day find an opportunity
undisturbed to answer yours of the 22 d ult. Never having been much
of a pecuniary calculator it is absolutely out of my power to say how
my account with the Review of Montesquieu stands. When pressed
hard last year by the combination of one set of old friends and the
desertion of the rest I found in the sacrifice of I considerable number
of the review for the price of print and paper some little aid in saving
me from wreck ; and as every cent then was in effect as good as a dollar
when I did not want the dollar, I have derived some gratification in
that respect that even my wants contributed to utility ; and in fact I
feel perfectly satisfied, beside that I have some copies remaining which
I sell now and then at 2 $ allowing the bookseller who rents my store,
the usual discount. I have made various efforts to have the book re-
viewed in Boston, N. York, and here without success ; and even a copy
which Mr Ronaldson deposited in the hands of the Edinburg Reviewers
Editor, has had no better success ; such is the conspiracy against virtue
even among those who profess themselves the lovers of light and litera-
ture. I had once one inclination to send a copy to W. L. Smith of
360 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Charleston in return for an anecdote of D r Franklin which he volun-
teered to me ; but as I was about to dispatch it I found he took himself
off. I shall send you the original French MSS. by mail as soon as the
Weather clears so as to secure it from danger of wet on the road ; and
I shall be grateful for the Copy of Tracy's Work, which I shall be able
to go through as a change of exercise during the Summer.
I should not have ventured to touch upon political affairs, had you
not mentioned the subject, having considered a former letter as in some
measure interdicting me on that topic — and while I attempt it now I
feel loth lest my ideas should give you pain ; and am only justified to
myself by the intention, which is not to give pain but to give the senti-
ments of a feeling and minute observer.
I believe it is unnecessary to repeat how fatally realized my predic-
tions have been on our military affairs — the sacrifices in the west are
not at an end, and I shall be very well content if Harrison after spend-
ing a million of dollars in his erratic course returns with the western
youth safe to their homes. The sacrifice on the Raisin river is only a
second edition of Tippecanoe — Detroit — Queenstown, and Buffaloe
are all the fruit of the shocking disregard of common sense in the choice
of unfit, incapable, and profligate men, raised by the vilest intrigues to
stations in which the sacrifice of virtuous men was to be the fruit of
their elevation. The solitary influence of gallantry in the subalterns
& soldiers reflects back and renders more conspicuous the imbecility of
those who were the leaders ! I could go into a history of transactions
on this subject that would shock you — I forbear — but it will be history.
What could we expect but reverses, when one general was appointed
full of years only to prevent his being a rival candidate to a member
of Congress from the same district. Another because the Secretary
at War declared " he would not have conducted the business against
Wilkinson, had it not been for his aid." If I could believe that provi-
dence ever interfered in human affairs or murdered the innocent to
expiate the sins of the guilty who were spared, I should consider our
sufferings in the last campaign a punishment for the shocking perse-
cution of the man of all others best adapted to save the country from
such disasters as ignorance and imbecility have brought upon us. How
could we expect any thing but reverses. When I am well authorized
to say that the very first news of the war given to the enemy by
which Machilimackinac was taken and Hull's baggage intercepted was
communicated from Washington I have experienced your repugnance
to believe any thing sinister of particular men — I therefore forbear to
name the person under whose frank that news passed to the North
West company's agent. Whenever Hull's trial comes on the fact will
appear. I do not choose to place myself again in that point of public
view, which may expose me to persecution, my family to destruction,
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 361
and the cruel abandonment of those who owed me nothing but gratitude,
and to whom I owe nothing but the blushes which the recollection of
their conduct always produces.
The policy which has been pursued towards British agents in admit-
ting cargoes notoriously contrary to established law, has had a fatal
effect on the minds of the men most devoted to the republic — a change
in that course of policy and the influence which directs, is the wish of
thousands, and it cannot be long before it cannot be avoided ; it squats
like an incubus on the executive power and benumbs the whole
government.
I have had repeated applications made to me to make a public expo-
sition of numerous facts — I determined when the war was declared
that I would not countenance any expositions which were not of vital
importance to the State and I have adhered to it ; where I could not
applaud I have been silent, and I have endeavored by private com-
munications to render every service in my power.
I should write more frequently to you if I did not apprehend it
would be disagreeable ; I have written now only in consequence of
your touching the subject.
I shall be glad to receive Tracy's work whenever you may think
proper to send it. Have you seen Ganiltis book on Political Economy
— I find it translated into English published at N. York ; is worthy of
your perusal.
Believe me ever affectionately yours
W M DUANE
This letter has been delayed till this date (9 March) by a rumor
that you were unwell; Col. Coles who called here removed my fears
first on that head — but the letter has lain over until taken up among
the last month's miscellaneous business. M r Madison's message about
the licenses and his speech on his reelection have given some hopes
to the republicans — but the failure of the law; in the Senate has
excited equal disgust. M r M. chose the greater evil and got rid of the
lesser two years ago.
To Jefferson.
Phii> Sep r 26, 1813
Dear and respected Sir, — I have the pleasure of receiving
yours of the 18 th this day — the work of Tracy is going forward but
slowly, as I cannot devote from my present engagements the time I
should wish to see it pushed forward. I have put it in the hands of
one of Neef's assistants, a sensible and liberal young man; and Neef is
able to render the abstruseness of Tracy's metaphysics a little more
comprehensible than my young friend or myself should — I did not
46
362 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
calculate upon accomplishing it before the close of the present fall, and
I think it will be ready for a full perusal by the end of October.
The affair of the Enterprize & Boxer has been followed by another
triumph still more signal in manner and consequences The victory on
Lake Erie has laid the foundation for the Security of the western
countries, which ought to have been long since achieved by the enor-
mous means of every kind money, ?nen, and stores furnished, but which
have been wasted in a manner the most shameful and with effects cor-
responding in disgrace. It is deplorable, with the experience of ages
and of our own times, with common sense to resort to, how unfortunate
has been the manner in which the military operations were consigned
and the hands in which they were placed. Poor Pike when I last saw
him in this city said to me at parting — "I shall go to Canada proba-
bly never to return, but I shall go ; for the generals we have are all
generals of the Cabinet, and it is only after several of us who have
some knowledge of military business are sacrificed, that men will be
placed to lead who are now in the ranks or in obscurity — you shall
then see our cabinet generals retire and fighting generals brought
forward. 57
It was a great calamity that such a man as Eustis should have had
the appointments of the army at his discretion, since his errors have
been a burthen to the country and an obstacle to his successor ; that is
however now in some measure correcting itself. No man esteems
Gen Dearborne more than I do, but it was a great mistake to place
him in these times at the head of a new army — and it was still
worse to give him coadjutors incompetent from various causes to
supply any of his deficiencies. He had Morgan Lewis for Q r Master
General, who if it could procure him a diadem could not give an
instruction nor define the duties of one of his deputies, in fact it was
sending a vessel to sea without raising her anchors to put such a man
in such a station, and yet the expedient resorted to was to make him
a Major General who could not execute the duties of Q r Master !
Another of poor Dearborne's p*rops was Alexander Smythe, a man who
to this hour is incapable of exercising a company, and this is the man
who was to organize a raw army ! General Bloomfield had some expe-
rience and was wounded at Braudywine, and his knowledge of details
in the old forms is perhaps equal to any one of his cotemporaries ; but
he has not the remotest idea of modern principles nor of that distribu-
tion of the duties which renders ten thousand men as manageable as
one though he is a man of note — and independent of the effects of age
which is already dotage, he was not competent to any service in action,
and especially in Canada ; while Pike was in his brigade it was well
because Pike saved him the trouble of every sense but hearing — and
at last the organization of the Staff afforded an opportunity to place
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 363
him where no military service was required, but where it required the
greatest patience and a sentiment of generosity to keep matters out of
confusion — a Volunteer association composed of the sons of Tories and
Aristocrats in this city were called into service by him at the very
moment they were defaming the government — they were sent to camp
and were a curse to the neighborhood — on their march they entered
peaceable houses and carried away provisions by violence, tho' amply
supplied by public providence they practised in common various acts of
violence on the public arms in their hands and darned them as Demo-
cratic arms and returned them totally unfit for service ; yet these men
received public thanks in a general order for their exemplary conduct
and discipline ! As Adjutant General I declined signing and refused
to publish such an order — but it is only a specimen of what was doing
on the frontiers.
I speak of this matter more fully because it comes under my own
eyes and knowledge — I have no motive of a personal kind to be dis-
satisfied with Gen. B. and he has more than once said he was fortunate
in having me as his adj. Gen. But it goes to show what unhappy
misconceptions governed the choice of officers. Winder was a younger
man but before he was appointed he knew no more of Military affairs
than his horse ; and I am satisfied he could not put a company in
motion now after two years experience. Chandler was not a whit
better as to intelligence. The consequences have been seen, but it has
cost the country much treasure and much more precious blood, which
might have been saved. But if I were to go into the numeration of
all that might be truly said and deplored on this subject, you would be
tired and I should be ashamed to exhibit a picture so inconsistent with
the virtue of a republic and so fatal to its character for talents and
public spirit. The refusal of Gen. Davie and Governor Ogden of rank
in the army, they pretend to justify upon such grounds as those, tho' T
am perfectly aware that their refusal was actuated fry different motives.
Their nomination however is very characteristic of the fatal policy
which has too long prevailed, and which your goodness will excuse me
for saying was too much countenanced by yourself; it is too plain that
we are not all republicans nor all federalists — the spirit of faction in the
East I apprehend has been too much encouraged by the mistakes
which they perceived we ran into, and which they attributed to a fear
of their power instead of that benignity in which it originated.
It will be found true I believe in all times, that men who are indif-
ferent to social and moral obligations can be governed by no other
means than by their fears or interests ; to place men of such a character
on a level with men of principle or virtue is to reduce virtue and vice,
patriotism and perfidy to a common standard of merit! The effects
have been felt in our political affairs — and in our military operations
364 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
— the army has exhibited a theatre of dissention, and the sword
which was put to the field to assail the enemy has been too frequently
unsheathed to assault the vindicator of his country's rights and govern-
ment. The late General Pike told me that until he witnessed the
treasonable and seditious discourses in the field he had considered
himself a federalist, but that he was not only cured, but astonished
how the government ever appointed one of them to a place of honor
or confidence. I fear that the policy of courting enemies and sacri-
ficing friends prevails too much in political affairs, and remote and
small as its beginnings were, that it has been carried to such a height
as if not speedily put a stop to by some generous and magnanimous
rallying of the republicans it will end in the frustration of all the good
that has arisen out of the triumph of 1800. I could say a great deal on
this topic if I were not afraid of tiring you or of giving you pain — and
I have not written on politics so much as I have now written since
March last. •
The sentiments you express concerning the unhappy men in the
hands of the enemy, have warmed my most affectionate feelings towards
you — Would to God that M r Madison felt as you do, and would act
upon it ; he would glorify himself and it would do more than ten sail
of the line or twenty thousand men in prosecuting the war to a peace,
and in elevating our country in the eyes of the World. Can it be pos-
sible that M r Madison does not converse with you or is his health such
as to render him unable ; surely M r Monroe would think and act with
your thoughts. It would be rendering a most honorable service to M r
Madison and to humanity to point out this glorious path to Justice and
Natural Dignity.
I have never had the confidence or personal knowledge of M r
Madison with which you have honored me, or I should have written
him on such subjects often. A man has been lately sent from Halifax
to England in Irons who has been a citizen of the U. S. 20 years and
with a family !
You may expect very soon to hear of something very decisive and
brilliant by our land forces — the orders for operations have been
issued for movements at four points on the same day ; the Erie busi-
ness will favor Harrison's operations, if he has only prudence to consult
some man of talents as to his operations ; but Proctor must evacuate
Michigan and Maiden to prevent being cut off ; if Harrison possessed
either talents or enterprise he would by throwing 2000 men across the
Lake to Long Point compel him to surrender at Discretion.
The operations going on lately have had in view to deceive the
enemy, and it has succeeded admirably for I find Sir Geo. Provost has
forsaken Kingston, where he ought to have made his stand in order to
go up to the head of the Lake to meet those demonstrations which
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DTJANE. 365
were making there for no purpose in the world, as I believe but to
delude him into a snare.
The division under. Gen. Hampton has proceeded down Champlain ;
the troops with him are select and excellent; he has some able men
near him, and he has discretion enough to depend on them more than
on himself, which is no bad quality in such a responsible station —
being in it. I presume that he will be (as he ought to be) in Montreal
at least before the 1 st of October ; in that event our whole force must
be brought below. Kingston will I suppose be taken by Wilkinson.
Quebec will be left for the end of May & June next — when it must
fall — a siege of four weeks ought to bring Quebec under the American
banner.
But I have tired you — if it is not interesting it will be at least an
evidence of my unabated respect and confidence in your continued
liberality & friendship.
W M DUANE
To Madison.
Phil a 22 d Fob. 1814
Sir, — Having had the honor to address you on the appointment of
a Postmaster in this city, I think myself bound to represent to you
that an effort wholly artificial and factious is now making here to
make an impression on your mind that the appointment is not approved
by the mass of the community. It is very inauspicious for the repub-
lican cause, when the worst of men and the vilest of passions can by
any means assume the representation of the feelings and wishes of the
community. But unquestionably the republican cause has been for
some years in such hands as made virtuous men ashamed and feeling
men tremble. The principle of regarding the greater good more than
partial evil, has induced me in the station which I had occupied with
some service to the public, to remain rather a neutral spectator, willing
to suffer in my personal affairs & feelings, than resist a state of things
which as to the state was only just not as bad as the reign of terror in
1797-8. The preponderating advantage of silence was that while
every thing was inconsistent with former political professions in the
state, the ruling influence had come round from opposition to support
of the general government ; and the importance of the state to the
Union in such critical times weighed down every personal considera-
tion. This impunity has perhaps tended to aggravate the evil here,
and as to persons the evil is now becoming as grievous as federal pro-
scription in 1798. The same means then employed by the infuriate
Marats of that day are now in operation by the Marats of the present.
The persecutors of 1798 called themselves Federalists ; these of to-
day call themselves republicans ; but it is rather an extraordinary
366 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mat,
coincidence, that the same men who were proscribed then by one
party should be now proscribed by the other — and that in both
instances the most abandoned men of both parties should be the most
active and conspicuous and that the terrorists of this day literally
adopt the means of slander and aspersion and the proscription of
persons who do not concur with them.
I use the name of only one man the most active and slanderous of all
the present race — Matt. Randall, of whose character Captain Josiah
and Capt. W. Jones the present Sec ty of the Navy can give you ample
information.
These men have caused a printed paper to be circulated for signa-
tures — and there is no paper to which a number of signatures could not
be procured when names not character is required. I cite two cases in
exemplification of the course pursuing here. Mr John Dorsey is an
auctioneer under a commission from the State Executive, he signed
a paper for a candidate for the Post office which was handed him by
one of the partisans who are in rule ; another paper has been since
handed him for the removal of D r Leib ; Mr Dorsey had the honesty
to say he could not sign such a paper as it was false from beginning to
end — they have threatened to turn him out of his station for refusing
to sign what he could not believe.
Application was made to Stephen Girard the Banker for the like
purpose, he repelled them with indignation, and told them he highly
approved of the appointment of D r Leib.
In short, Sir, the calumnies raised against D r Leib are the stale
slanders brought out of a family quarrel in 1798 or 1799, and intro-
duced by a rival for political purposes — there is not on earth a man
of purer integrity or nicer honor than D r Leib in his dealings between
man and man. He has no enemies but those created by political dis-
putes — and take away those who are interested in the present case of
the Post Office there is not a respectable man in this community and
a friend to the government who does not approve the appointment.
The state of politics in this state in such hands as it now is cannot
endure — I have no other interest in this case than a common one and
the love of justice — I do not wish to see the executive converted into
an indirect libeller of any man's character, upon the evidence of the
vilest men in the community. Let me most earnestly assure you that
the course now pursuing here to injure D r Leib has excited the strong-
est indignation in some of the most respectable of those who have sus-
tained your administration ; and that if you were to give way to these
artificial clamors — that the administration would suffer in the opinions
of meu whose opinions are more precious than the clamors of these
Demagogues are to be feared. It would be throwing pain into honest
hearts to gratify men who would abandon as they before abused your
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 367
name, mind, character and authority. For myself a proscription of
this kind countenanced by you would make me despair of the Republic
which cruelty and relentless personal persecution has not hitherto done.
Excuse, Sir, the warmth and the sincerity of this address — I trust
that it is not offensive — and am sure it was not meant to be — it flows
from my heart & unknown to another being. With great respect your
obed Ser 1
Wm Duane
To Madison.
Phil a 22d June, 1814
Sir, — I trust to be pardoned for the liberty of addressing you when
I assure you of my unfeigned sincerity, that I should not address you
on any occasion, which I did not believe the object consistent with
justice and calculated to do you honor, I have seldom taken this liberty
and never for myself. The vacancy in the Post Office here has as is
usual called forth a number of Candidates. My purpose is to solicit
the station for a man whose sacrifices of a respectable profession and
whose services in critical times entitle him to the generous considera-
tion of the Republican Administration. D r M. Leib to my knowledge
sacrificed his medical practice of 5000 $ a year, and came forward in
defence of the principles of the government when the whole number
of men who dared to avow their politics in this city did not exceed
twenty. He has for his services in that trying period incurred an un-
varying course of political persecution — no man in this community has
done more within the period of my experience by his zeal, intelligence,
and integrity than Dr, Leib. Other men with politics and morals more
elastic have accumulated wealth, while he has been the scape goat of
the apostates from principle and the proselytes of avarice to the pre-
vailing authority.
I am the more earnestly induced to trespass on you with my feelings
on this occasion because the opposition to him bears a character so
impudent and indecent in its public form, and proceeds from a person
who not seven years ago avowed that he would have been a Tory had
he lived in the Revolution, and who has been elected to Congress only
through the disposition which has prevailed with those in this district
who could have prevented it to make every sacrifice to avoid even the
appearance of division at a period when union was so necessary.
Of the candidates who it is reported are likely to possess a strong
interest with the Executive I am told young M r Bache is one. My
connexions with that gentleman's family, are well known ; I also know
that he possesses already a handsome fortune and an office under the
state government.
But there is a consideration which you will I am sure pardon me for
368 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
pressing upon your attention, because it in some degree touches myself;
and in truth because I have experienced in some measure how little
past services are regarded in politics when present purposes derive no
support for them. It is painfully true that in this district the men
who rendered the most service in the days of terror, who sacrificed
every thing and who risked life, have been grievously persecuted by men
who call themselves the friends of the administration — some of these
persecutors high in office and enormously aggrandized from public pa-
tronage, I can assert for myself that I have been grievously persecuted
in my industry, my character, my family peace, and in every pursuit —
by persons of this description. I have in this respect shared a fate in
common with D r Leib, who has felt it more perhaps because he had
not in his hands the means of vindication and retaliation which I pos-
sess, but which because I do possess I have seldom used.
My hope in addressing you thus earnestly is to put an end to this
notion that men whose services were precious in trying times are to be
held up for proscription, to persons who unite so many incongruities
of character of every kind that I forbear to trouble you with any par-
ticular enumeration of them. I solicit for Dr Leib your patronage
honestly and manfully — Let me add that I do this without his knowl-
edge — nay that he and I have not been on terms of intimacy since
the last session of Congress — nor have we spoked to or corresponded
with each other. I can assure you that however the appointment may
be opposed by men who will oppose every thing, by those who have
within two or three years used and flattered you — by those who would
with equal facility abuse you again were their avarice to be glutted by
it — I assure you that no man of whom I have heard will afford more
satisfaction to the liberal, to those only whose opinion is worthy of the
regard of a chief magistrate or any other honest man.
I am Sir with the utmost respect
Your obed Ser 1
W M DUANE
To Jefferson.
Phil a 11 Aug. 1814
Respected & dear Sir, — The translation has been completed
several months, but business of every kind has been thrown into new
channels, and of the six presses which were formerly employed for my
benefit only one which prints the Aurora is now employed — there was
not work to pay wages, and the MSS. remains on hand. Unless a
change of some kind takes places I see no prospect of doing any thing
— for I am too low in purse to be able to contribute any thing to my
wishes and the cause of truth.
The state of things in Europe has baffled all human anticipations —
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 369
where it will end is as difficult to foresee. Unless as they affect our
own country I feel no deep interest in them — the French have fallen
from the loftiest pinacle of renown to the lowest abyss of contempti-
bility ; and one is equally at a loss whether to despise them or to abhor
the author of all the wars of Europe most. Spain is to be sure a kind
of foil to elevate France, by exhibiting the force and brutality of super-
stition on the unfortunate species. But they are all very appropriately
assimilated to bears, and lions, and panthers and tygers — •
I think seriously however of the effect on our own affairs, and the
more seriously when I reflect on the state of the government and the
apathy into which the people have fallen : a state perhaps the like of
which never was before seen in a nation, an apathy which like the state
of the human stomach in certain cases, will admit of no wholesome
aliment ; and receives no nourishment but thro' a poisonous medium.
The country appears to me in a state very much resembling that of
Holland in the time of the illustrious De Witts, I believe about 1670
or thereabout ; and menaced by the same enemy and by the same kind
of agency. Hume describes it briefly but truly and I am afraid the
moral condition of the country is not much better than was that of the
Dutch who could be prevailed on to murder their benefactors, to sub-
serve the rapacious avarice and jealousy of England and to elevate a
family who were to be their tyrants as the price of the subserviency of
the tyrant to England.
The Dutch would not believe — I mean the Dutch republicans, the
DeWitts, would not believe the British meant to play them foul ; they
believed in British friendship ; they believed the professions and promises
of British Ministers — in defiance of the daily acts of contumely and
outrage committed on their people
I see the same credulity in our government — I see the power of
England in the sneers of her agents as they walk, our streets — I see
the predominancy of that influence in the midst of war, and — forgive
me — I see our own government temporising with this abominable
government and inviting their contempt and their insolence by treating
them in a manner which they must consider with exultation — as they
must judge by themselves — and always have been truckling and mean
in adversity, as they have been insolent and overbearing in Prosperity.
Our Government will never accomplish any thing by reasoning or
appealing to justice, whose policy is established on the injury of all
other nations and whose habitual passions as a nation are hatred, envy,
jealousy, and hardness of heart towards every other people.
How will the bear and the lion settle the question of neutral rights —
as the French say. I fear it is en Vair — it is something like the bal-
loons thirty years ago, no longer an object worth contending for — the
Deliverer of Europe will probably commute for Poland all pretentions
47
370 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
to the freedom of the Seas. My respect for Kings and Statesmen is not
encreased by the experience of twenty years past. The possession of
power appears to operate like a Tourniquet on the moral faculties, as
soon as men possess power the moral artery appears to be screwed up —
and the statesman becomes as frigid as a frog — Alexander the De-
liverer has had his sop. I believe he will sit down " infamous and
contented " ; but Poland is an immense bastion, flanking Silesia, Bohe-
mia, Lusatia, Moravia, Austria, and Hungary — the road by Krems
over which Suwaroff marched for Italy & Switzerland is within a few
miles of Vienna.
Saxony proper is portioned to aggrandize Prussia, this reduces
Prussia to vassalage to Russia, and enables Russia to keep Austria
counterpoised — the Austrian Empress is I believe a Saxon ! There
is to be a grand farce at Vienna, the parade of Plenipotentiaries, who
are to act as the arch jugglers Talleyrand & Castleragh seduce by cun-
ning or purchase by gold — those grand arsons who set fire to nations
and retire by the light of the conflagration they kindle to collect the
spoils of desolation amidst the ruins. But where am I running.
England cannot at this moment sit down quietly in peace, without
greater danger than she can incur by continuing the war. This may ap-
pear a paradox. Her condition cannot at any time be suddenly changed
— it is now wholly military — her circulation and social subsistence
circulates through military channels — her means and experience are now
more commensurate to war than at any former period — she may reduce
as many of her land and naval forces as can with safety be admitted into
society — but she will be obliged to send abroad or to abandon a larger
portion, which would perhaps enter the armies of her rivals, or carry
them selves to America to augment American population or man
American vessels in commerce or war. England has experienced the
want of Generals, it has taken her 20 years to produce one, and she
will endeavor to keep up the breed ; she has discovered that what
Vegetius said long ago is true — " neither length of years, nor knowl-
edge of state affairs, do " back the art of War, but continual exercise.
What does this lead to, you will ask ? It leads to considerations
that disturb my sleep and induce me to look at the little flock of inno-
cents around me; I recollect what I have seen of English policy, I
recollect the traditionary history of three generations of my ancestors- —
I have seen in three quarters of the earth beside my country the policy
of England — the national character of its policy — I am ready to meet
it, but I cannot be therefore insensible to what must be inevitable — if
the Government does not act as becomes the exigency — if they slum-
ber like the DeWitts over a Volcano ; if they temporise with disaffec-
tion and exhibit in all their Measures the same melancholy evidences
of discord which characterises the extremities of the nation — we are
undone.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 371
England has purchased every government in Europe — by her gold
she has arrayed them all in arms — and in the midst of what was
reputed the best organized tyranny that ever was framed she organized
a conspiracy for its overthrow — and succeeded. Are we to expect this
haughty power will in the insolence of her unexampled success treat
us with delicacy or justice — O fatal expectation! fatal because it is
even supposed to be possible !
But what is wrong or what would be right.
Pardon me as usual for the freedom and unreserve with which I
speak to you — I pretend to nothing more than common sense. And
if I speak with confidence and firmness it is to be attributed only to
the earnestness & sincerity of my convictions. What is wrong? Why
the war from the first movement towards Tippecanoe to the last move-
ment into Canada by Niagara has been a series of futile and wasteful
measures, productive if successful of no positive and comprehensive or
desirable good, but productive of disaster and destruction as they have
been conceived and conducted. It was a fatal mistake not to declare
war at the period of the Chesapeake, but the most fatal of all mistakes
was the repeal of the Embargo. But I cannot conceive how any man
who has considered the world for a life of forty years only could expect
any thing but war after that repeal, or could think of accomplishing
any solid object of peace but by a vigorous exercise of the whole
energies of the nation. The embargo repeal indeed deceived the enemy
fortunately as much as it deceived ourselves, for M r Quincey only
echoed what Henry and other English emissaries said in Boston, that
we could not be kicked into a war.
The measures taken and the manner in which the war has been
conducted is the true cause of the apathy that prevails in society.
The friends of the Government, that is the Whigs of 1798, are the
most disgusted and disappointed. They recollect the proscriptions and
tyranny that prevailed during the last years of General Washington
and all M r Adams' presidency, and they tremble at the idea of their
recurrence ; and they see that to be inevitable unless there be a differ-
ent system, and unless the Executive pursues means to rouse the
country to a sense of its danger.
I sent you a little memoir in 1812, I send you a copy of it again
— you will see that what I there suggested, was not only practicable,
but that some part of it has since been proposed but not executed ; I
mean the passage of the Cadaraqui and the occupation of a position cut-
ting off the communication with Lower Canada.
The expeditions from Detroit against Maiden — against Queenstown
— against Fort George, against York in Upper Canada, could never at
any time accomplish a purpose decisive of the war. It was the duty of
this Government not to have made discursive expeditions ; the Militia
872 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
should have maintained a defensive war and protected their frontier ;
the regular force should have been all concentrated ; and they were not
only fully adequate to conquer all upper Canada by one battle ; but to
overwhelm lower Canada with the force possessed in the month of July
last or in the month of March of the present year. The gallantry of
Miller, Croghan and Johnson, Holmes, of Perry & Elliot, do not com-
pensate the losses of the expeditions under Harrison and the shameful
transactions of his command.
The victory at York was dearly purchased by the life of Pike — but
what did it or what could it accomplish even if he survived.
The design against Montreal was one of the most infatuated that the
mind of man ever conceived, whether the season, the position, the mode
of access, the force and means possessed for the service, or the condition
of the enemy be considered ; it was passing into a well without a ladder
to reascend, and the enemy above to cut off all supplies or access to
you. The shocking imbecility of Hampton at Chateauguay was alike
disgraceful to him and the Government which under the shelter of his
wealth suffered him to escape in contempt of all discipline — indeed
his first appointment was a reproach to the government, since every,
man who knew him must know that neither education nor God had
qualified him for a military command — and it must be an implicit
belief in the possibility of miracles which could alone sanction it.
How can the people believe that the government was in earnest when
such men as Morgan Lewis was made first a Quarter Master General,
one function of which he was not fit to execute, and then a Major
General when found unfit to be a Q r M r .
I could go more into particulars but I have already written too much.
The measures as now conducted will lead only to the same calamitous
issues as last year — The force now under Gen. Izard if carried against
Prescott on the Cadaraqui might decide the campaign by the surrender
of all upper Canada and render all our seamen now on Ontario & Erie
disposable on Champlain ; our force now dispersed might be concen-
trated ; and our line of defence would be reduced to the line between
the Cadaraqui and Sorrel, instead of from Mackinac to Champlain.
The Indians would be quelled for want of subsistence and English
agents ; and our forces could be in training for the opening of the
Spring, when I expect to see a British army landed on our
coasts.
In reflecting on the events which are to be expected, I have con-
ceived a project, the policy of which I will submit to you in a concise
way ; I have no doubts or fears about its success or efficacy myself, but
there are so many prejudices on the subject that I am well aware of
the delicacy with which it ought to be touched ; tho 1 once carried into
operation, it would be in my mind one of the most powerful and effec-
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 373
tive means of public defence that could be devised by the wisdom of
man — I shall give it on a separate sheet.
The enemy are now establishing a depot on the extreme of Long
Island — I do not expect that they will attempt any thing on a large
Scale this fall unless they should attempt a Coup de Main — but I
expect they will in the Spring be prepared with a force to shake our
country to the centre.
Our government could lose nothing by acting upon this principle —
they may sacrifice every thing by acting upon any other.
With great esteem and respect
Your friend & Serv*
W M DUANE
Would it be expedient to use black troops ?
The probability of an extensive and perhaps durable war, renders it
important to anticipate every means by which the public safety may be
endangered or secured. There are many who fear a rising of the
colored people, this suggests an enquiry, — on three several points
1. What would be the effect of the employment in war of the white
population alone?
2. What would be the effect on the colored population ?
3. What would be the policy of the enemy ?
1. Obliged to act on the defensive, the U. S. army must at all time
consist of not less than 50000 effective men regulars.
Militia 100,000 for short periods.
If only one tenth of this number be diminished every year by the
casualties of camps and war, then the annual diminuation each year
would be 15000 men; say only 10000, as our people are more hardy
and better adapted to endure fatigue than Europeans.
If there be any foundation for the apprehension of revolt, then the
danger is increased by the employment of whites alone ; while the col-
ored men are exempted from any participation in the dangers or
privations of war; and their relative strength will be augmented to
excess equal to the number taken from the whites.
It must be here observed that the hypothesis presumes the revolt
probable ; I however do not believe it probable, without a foreign
excitement.
2. The relative effect on the numbers of the colored population is
touched in a particular sense in the preceding observations. In another
point of view it is very important. The American born blacks, even
in the Southern states where slavery is yet suffered, feel a sentiment of
patriotism and attachment to the U. S. Those who doubt it know very
little of human nature and the force of habit on the human mind.
374 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
There is nothing in the African traditions that can awaken either the
affections of the heart or that enthusiasm which is the effect of lost or
promised happiness or glory. Slavery is congenial to the habits of
thinking and to the condition of the actual Africans and their imme-
diate descendants, their past condition was no better than the present ;
and the present condition of the descendant ten thousand cases to one
is better than in Africa or any other country where they are numerous.
If climate be the consideration, the descendants know it only by de-
scription and the climates of the Southern States identify everything
that can be desirable in Africa. Their ideas of liberty like all other
ideas are derived from association ; and apt as they are frequently to
desire to imitate the whites, very few of them ever rise to [so] much
above their condition as [to] feel the sentiment of equality of rights in
the dissimilarity of colors. I have known Africans of highly cultivated
minds, I never found but one who was not content to be an external
imitator of the manners and habits of white men.
To gratify their passion for imitation to a certain extent would I
believe secure their affections and assure the exercise of all their
faculties. The Asiatics are by no means more intelligent than the
Africans and their descendants in what relates to their social rela-
tions to the whites. The Asiatics equal the hardiest and proudest and
bravest of human species ; their valor, contempt of danger, and of pain
and death are not to be surpassed, yet they are susceptible of the most
rigid discipline ; so would the descendants of the Africans serve and be
serviceable in the United States. To employ them as soldiers would
be to save so many of the whites and if loss be to be calculated, to
assure a proportional suffering and thereby a proportionate Security.
To employ the blacks would be to carry against the British a force
to them on many accounts most terrific, and to us a bond not only of
security against the external enemy, but the best force by which the
refractory of their own color could be kept in subjection. I need not
point out the effect on the minds of the ignorant of any color, when one
part is elevated into a better condition or more honored than his fel-
lows. I do not admire the trait, I only speak of what is and what I
fear ever will be the human character.
3. There can be no doubt from what has been already seen in the
waters of the Chesapeake that the enemy will endeavor to use the
black population against us. It is the policy of the British in every
part of the globe. They have corrupted and arrayed the Whites of N.
Eng. against the Whites South of them — they have arrayed the white
Protestant against the white Catholic in Ireland — they arrayed the
blacks of St. Domingo against the Whites — they array Mahomedans
against Hindus in India and govern seventy millions of an ingenious
people by about forty brigades of troops enlisted out of the mass of
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 375
the people whom they rule ; they reign with a white population of
about 20000 military and civil scattered over a country of 2000 square
miles in perfect security and as safe as in the midst of England.
Their policy would not overlook our apprehensions or the resource
which a revolt would present to them. Counteract them — defeat them
by turning the resources upon which they calculate against them. They
have already erected a standard and issued an invitation in the South.
My proposition would be to embody a single brigade to establish the
first economy and discipline of the corps, and the mildness of the East
India companys sepoy system is exactly such as is adapted to the pur-
pose ; they might then be augmented, one battalion of 500 men to
every white Reg of one thousand; confining them to Infantry of the
line, sappers and advance corps.
I feel a perfect persuasion of the efficacy and security of such corps
— and that to overlook or neglect to use them for military service will
not only be a fatal blindness, but perhaps the only mode by which the
colored population can become dangerous or injurious.
I could enter into more detail, but the object is so important and
novel to the mind that it is presented in this concise form to give it a
fair opportunity for examination.
To James Monroe.
Phila 25 Octr 1814
D r Sir, — M r Manuel Torres, a gentleman of South America who
has resided here for a considerable number of years and is attached to
our government and country, has favored me with the perusal of some
financial views which I consider of the greatest value and worthy the
attention of Government. I have advised him to present himself to you,
and thro' you to the President and to the Sec ty of the Treasury ; and
I have given him a note similar to this to Mr Giles and Mr Eppes
and shall do the like to a few others of my friends in Congress.
Mr Torres is a man of practical experience and his principles and
views perfectly in the Spirit of our Government, to which I believe
him most sincerely attached.
I am with great respect
Your obed Ser'
W M DUANE.
To Jefferson.
Phil a 23 d Novr 1814
Respected Sir, — I enclose you one of 12 copies of another of my
humble efforts to give direction to the minds of Congress towards their
danger and their salvation.
It behoves every man to employ his whole influence and mind to
876 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
stimulate Congress in time to provide against the Spring A mighty
effort can be accomplished if the members of Congress can but be
brought to perceive the danger ; and the war may be terminated before
the middle of July by the utter expulsion of the enemy from Canada;
any thing short of that will be doing nothing or worse. Driven out of
that our whole disposable force would be adequate to meet the enemy
at any point on the Seaboard. And the regular force might be if
necessary reduced to one half.
With the greatest respect & esteem your friend
W M DUANE.
Received from M r N. G. Dufief Fifteen Dollars, being so much paid
by him on account of Thomas Jefferson late Pres* of the United States
in account with me.
W M DUANE
Phil a 2 d May, 1815.
To Jefferson.
Phil a 9 th Jan 1817
Respected Sir, — There is a small sum of 60 $ money paid by me
for the translating of the continuation of Tracy's ideology ; the pressure
of the present times alone could induce me to trespass upon you, as the
young man the Bookseller at George Town to whom you proposed
giving the work to be printed, intimated something like dissatisfaction
or disapprobation on your part towards me. As I was wholly ignorant
of any just reason I forbore, as I have been accustomed to do all my
life, to offer no apologies for any unconscious offence ; I could not with
propriety to myself address you now without stating the reason why I
had not as customary in former times written to you. With unchange-
able feelings of respect and affection, I am your friend & Ser*
W M DUANE.
Endorsed by Jefferson : " Acct signed John B Smyth for Wm Duane
60. D. transl 5 paper to May 1. 16."
To Alden Partridge}
Phila 15th July, 1820
My dear Sir, — Having seen your name as engaged in some Scien-
tific pursuit near Boston I had refrained from addressing you ; but
seeing in Nat. Intel 6 your letter of 30th June, I now write you with
the view of ascertaining when your college will open. I have kept my
son Edward at occasional Arithmetical exercises and historical study,
expecting to hear of your opening. Be so good as to let me know
without delay when you will be ready to receive students, and in the
1 Norwich, Vermont,
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 377
event of its being soon open what may be necessary to be done in the
way of equipment — when it may be proper to send him and whatever
else you may think requisite. Should the College not be likely to
open in the present year, I must place him in some other situation so
that he may not lose this precious period of life.
I find that the affairs at West Point are in as much disorder as
formerly — and that vicious man Ellicott appears to have obtained a
fatal ascendancy thro' Scott over the present inexperienced and prag-
matic Secretary of War. I have been applied to, to know if I would
publish a series of Essays on the abuses there, and have answered that
I never promise to publish any thing before I have perused it — but
that I will always publish any duly authenticated facts of abuse of
public trust, or perversion of a public institution, be the culprits whom
they may — but it must be a fair open and direct investigation.
I should like to know any particulars that may be agreeable to you
to communicate concerning your establishment — and if there are any
facts concerning the boundary of 45° — which may divest us of any
territory — I am otherwise interested in it, as it possibly may deter-
mine whether I am a Canadian or a N. Yorker.
Accept my most sincere and affectionate respects.
To Jefferson.
Philadelphia, June 25, 1824
Respected and dear Sir, — Your kind and consolatory letter of
the 31ult. I have just received on my return from Washington city,
where I have been since the 10 th of Feb. engaged in settling accounts of
ten years standing and rescuing myself from the opprobrium of being
classed among the public defaulters. I will not plague you by a reca-
pitulation of the vexations and injuries I have suffered thro' the baleful
system (if it may be so called, which is contrary to all principles of policy,
equity and justice) of accountantship in the Department under which
my affairs had to be adjusted. In short I had a charge of $9000 first
laid against me, — reduced to $7000 — reduced to $4000, and for this
sum a judgment was obtained against me which was all founded on tech-
nicalities, and without regard to the facts upon the face of written and
contemporary statement ; where my own statement of periodical account
presenting Debit and Credit Items, I was debited on my own
statement but no credit would be allowed upon my credit side of
the same sheet of paper ! My appeal to Congress, however, relieved
me from the imputation of the judgment and gave me a balance of
about 2000 $ as a public creditor, restoring to me my reputation ; tho'
the Judgment was the immediate cause of my selling off all of property
that I had in 1822, and paying to the last dollar of the produce, for as
48
378 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
Farquhar expresses it " the scoundrel attorney " appeared to delight in
vexatious notifications of a judgment hanging over me, and alarming
those to whom in the way of business I had transactions of credit, such
as the paper maker, the typefounder, and the ink maker. To avoid all
this I resolved to sell all and begin the world anew in my 64 th year,
and some gentlemen who had furnished supplies to the Colombians
solicited me to visit that country to settle and obtain the amount of their
accounts, I accepted their proposal to defray all my expenses, pay a
weekly allowance to my wife during my absence, and allow me a com-
mission on all I should settle in behalf of the claimants. My eldest
daughter by my present wife was threatened with consumption and, like
my daughter Katherine much attached to me, solicited to accompany,
and her brother the second son of B. F. Bache, a lieutenant in the
army desired to at u: ~ own expense — with this little family party I set
out in Oct r 1822, and was in 15 days at La Guayra — where after 3
days, moved to Caracas, and a residence there of 3 weeks, moved in
Nov r for Bogota passing five great ranges and seven lesser ranges
of the Andes, many cities and towns, and reached that Capital 3 d Feb.
1 823 — remained there in prosecution of the business 3 months — settled
accounts to the amount of $104,000 with the board of liquidation ; left
Bogota by the Magdalena 27 April, reached Carthagena the 19 th May ;
remained there at the house of WD Robinson (author of a work on
Mexico) until embarkation 10 th June, and reached N. York on the
auspicious 4 th July.
An intrigue, I am sorry to say of a worthless American, deprived me
of the benefit of my mission, other than the advantage of having my
beloved child not only restored to health but to robust florid health by
a journey on mules of more than 1400 miles. I had intended to have
given some sketches of my journey to your worthy M r Randolph and
not without a presentiment that his good lady and her father would be
gratified — the necessity I was under of going to Washington in Feb-
ruary interfered with this purpose, but 1 shall if no unhappy cause
interferes pursue it. I returned from Washington only Yesterday ;
and while there was surprized, and I must say gratified to learn from
Col. R. M. Johnson, that you had written to the President concerning
me. I was the more gratified because I had so long been without the
satisfaction of an occasional line from you, as I had been sometimes
accustomed to ; but how it came to pass that you should so write I was
totally at a loss to conceive till your letter before me indicated. For
as I am perhaps too proud for my condition, and was seeking some pur-
suit fitted for me, I did not make my true situation known but to those
who from connexion could not remain wholly unacquainted with it.
Col. R. M. Johnson whose friendship is of an old standing and
whose friendship ardent towards me had voluntarily sought to
1^06.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 379
obtain some situation for me, as I understood to be sent to Colom-
bia or Mexico, but other arrangements had been made. Some
others of my old friends, such as Governor D Holmes of Mississippi
also took an interest of the same kind in my favor, and presuming upon
your kind interference and that of others, on my being at Washington I
had the satisfaction of a kind aud friendly interview with P l Monroe.
I spoke to him unreservedly of my circumstances and desire to obtain
some public employment, and suggested in consequence of the vacancy
of an Auditorship that if the fourth which was vacant should be filled
by M r Lee now Second Auditor, my acquaintance with Military ac-
counts would render the Second Auditorship very suitable to my
experience and aptitudes. This arrangement however did not take
place and I returned home under an uncertainty : tho' before I left the
city I was informed that one of the M r Bradley's (asst. Post 1 " Gen 1 )
was about to retire, and that I might probably be appointed to the
vacant station. This however did not reach me directly, and probably
was more the result of friendly wishes than of any known purpose.
Should it be within your ideas of propriety to place me again before
him, I know his dispositions to be good, but really he has been so run
down by importunity, and so harrassed by the incidents of three Can-
didates at a time in his immediate circle, that it is not [at] all surprizing
that he should be embarrassed and his memory carried off from his
wishes in matters of inferior concern, or where there is such a mass of
importunity.
My situation is really painful — my poor wife, accustomed to a life of
plenty and educated in habits more elegant than prudent, could bear the
storms of political persecution with the constancy of a Roman matron
and be the consolation and the partner of her husband in danger ; but
the adversity of need or dependance is not of that nature — and I fear
that a protraction of our present condition may be fatal to her and to us
all, her sorrows extend to her daughters, of whom we have four, the
eldest 21, the youngest 11 — If there was a certainty of the vacancy
above referred to and my appointment, I could console her, but I
cannot suggest to her what may be a disappointment. The balance
received by me was about 2000 but a great part of that was for engage-
ments entered into by me for the public service and which I must of
course pay away, what will remain may afford a scanty subsistence for
three or four months, when no other resource appears to me at this
moment open. Were I alone, a small pittance indeed would serve me
— but it would afford me unspeakable delight if I could see her and
my children once more in comfort & competency, and the station alluded
to would not only effect those objects but be of many beneficial effects.
Presuming then upon the kindness of your proffered solicitation for
me, I request your good offices once more with the President — he is
380 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
well disposed — but he is not aware of the necessity which alone could
impel me to thus entreat you.
The pamphlet arose out of a conversation with Major Clarke of Rich-
mond, — I endeavored in conversation to remove the impressions he
entertained and which prevailed very generally, he complained that
he was convinced but could not recollect all my remarks and requested
me to write them ; I felt some repugnance to appearing in the News-
papers, but he promised to return what I should write — I wrote,
shewed them to Judge Woodward, Col. Todd and two or three others
— who requested copies, but agreed to pay for 50 — which I had
printed and sent two to you — but it was discovered and I was impor-
tuned for copies and authorised the printer to issue a few for sale in a
second edition. I am gratified to find it meets your sentiments — No
one will susp^t me of British attachments — but I have done justice
to British policy where it is deserved, shewing however the motive.
Mexico will demand much more activity in our policy than I am
afraid there is a due estimate of. M r Edwards is not a fit man for the
state of things there at any time — much more in the present critical
time in that country. A country of 6,500,000 souls, with no more
than 350,000 proprietors of soil, must leave a vast body of disposable
people — u Take 100,000 pieces of calico and 2000 dollars" said the
late Manuel Torres, " and a piece of calico and 2 $ each will bring
forth 100,000 men capable of being led any where and doing good or
evil at the absolute discretion of their paymaster." There have been
very active intrigues in that country for several years.
I have trespassed much on you but you '1 excuse me
Ever yr obe'
W M DuANE.
On a literary subject
I had intended to have informed you of a work I have made some
progress in — " Sketches of Guatimala " — merely to make known to
you that there have been some discoveries of ancient ruins in that
country of a most interesting and curious character — for example.
The ruins of a splendid city, have been discovered, the buildings in
which were of hewn stone and in a peculiar but chaste style of archi-
tecture. In. one of those cities (for there are several) there has been
found a structure of very considerable extent — jive stories high — these
buildings have cornices and architraves of delicately wrought mouldings
— and by incidents discoverable in the distribution of .the apartments,
the various domestic offices and chambers are recognizable. But this is
not all the wonder, there are bas and alto relievos of exquisite design,
and of which the anatomical expression and symmetry of figure will
bear comparison for correctness of taste and fidelity to nature, with any
thing produced by the Grecian sculptors. One of those cities is 7
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 381
leagues in circumference — I have been speaking to the lithographer
here about executing the drawings — but shall be unable to conclude
with him — thro' the same necessity which compels me to look for a
public office.
I begun the work when I became possessed of those and other
materials, and with the access to the valuable Spanish library of R. W.
Meade, Esq I am able to master the early history. The commercial
history is but little known and the political less ; as the two Viceroyal-
ties of Mexico and N. Granada, had always combined to prevent the
growth of Guatimala into consequence ; so that it was better known
under the rule of Cortes and his lieutenants, than during the last
century. You must remember that Guatimala supplied Europe with
Indigo — and that the success of the Indigo cultivation in the Carolinas
rose upon the depression of Guatimala — tho 7 in our America that
cause was not so well known ; and that the trade of Carolina in Indigo
was undermined by the French in Bengal, before Cotton came in to
extinguish indigo as one of N. American staples, but Caracas is now,
and Guatimala will before five years supplant Asia, and resume its
former and merited preeminence in indigo ; and in many other
branches not generally suspected at this time. To the U States
Guatimala is more important for commercial purposes than all the
rest of Spanish America.
To Jefferson.
Washington, 19 October, 1824
Respected and dear Sir, — I denied myself the pleasure of reply-
ing to your kind letter in answer to mine concerning the Pamphlet on
"The two Americas" from an apprehension that you were already
too much troubled by correspondence ; the same motive would operate
now did not an unutterable necessity induce me to the trespass as a
refuge from despair.
The death of Samuel Clarke, the Naval officer of the Customs at
Philadelphia died on Saturday last, and I arrived here this day to
solicit the station. I addressed a letter to the President, as he had
authorised me to do, which reached him yesterday, and it was too late
on my arrival to wait upon him. But the letter was handed to him by
M r Lee under cover to whom he desired I should write.
I am apprehensive that interests more active than mine in Phil a will
prevail against me, unless your goodness should see it fit to interfere
once more in my behalf with the President. . I am thus apprehensive
because when I had an interview in May last, and tendered several
papers containing signatures of respectable Citizens of Phil a and mem-
bers of both chambers of Congress here, the President was so good as
to say that they were not necessary. Therefore I brought none now.
382 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
But the President now has said that I must obtain signatures for this
special office.
Here then am I involved in a double dilemma if I may so express
it — There are several persons who have neither my experience nor
any claims on the Score of service, but who have less scruples to seek
signatures — and may seek them where I should not ; again if it were
required that I should return to obtain signatures my friends may be
preoccupied ; and if I were to go — travelling with the utmost economy
I should reach my family with not more than $3 — and I should find
them with not much more — as after paying my debts and subsistence
out of what I received here last winter — I had only 50 $ left. Such
are the strange vicissitudes of life ; and it is in such circumstances that
I was taken up as the Candidate of the Old Republicans in the recent
Election fepij Members of Congress.
No man in the Union stands better in moral and mental estimation
than I do with men of all parties in Phil a , and it must be a consolation
after nearly 30 years before the public that my son and myself should
hold the place of preference among those who adhere to the principles
of 1776 & 1800. But altho a Republic now means something, the rights
of man is no longer a paradox and Democratic government is no longer
Jacobinism ; and those who formerly reprobated now use the language
and profess the doctrine they reviled twenty four years ago ; they do
not thank those who aided in reforming their modes of speech ; and as
I was an idle spectator in the transactions which produced this revolu-
tion in speech, the very same men opposed me on this occasion who
were opposed to you at that period and since. They do justice to my
social character, but tho they profess to be all Republicans, all Feder-
alists — they are not forgetful that I had shared in their conversion,
I had however a larger vote than M r Swanwick, M r M'Clenahan,
capt W. Jones, or Jo. Clay — as two of the most populous and repub-
lican wards of the city in former times voted for those citizens, but are
now attached to the District of Southwark. It is true a great number
of the leading republicans of that period have passed away, but this
shews that the principles of the Jefferson school has had in new gener-
ation successors of the same principles. It is a subject that I have
never heard appreciated as it merits, that is, the effect of these princi-
ples gaining the ascendancy, for altho' the votes now are given in the
same way as 20 years ago, the fundamental principles are no longer
disputed nor reviled and the rising generation will receive them uncon-
taminated. It was to me a subject of peculiar interest to mark the
contrast between the conduct of the same persons 24 years ago and on
the recent reception of the virtuous La Fayette ; at the former period
I have known the license to be taken away from the old established
tavern the Dean's Head, for no other trespass than permitting the Mar-
1906.]
LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 383
seilles hymn to be sung in the House — and yet it was the very same
man that took away the license, that ordered the Marseilles Hymn to
be performed upon the entre of La Fayette !
I fear my feelings have induced me to trespass on you more than was
necessary ; but I have been too many years accustomed to be affected
in this way to be able to govern my feelings now — or to deny myself
the gratification of such recollections.
I shall therefore not trespass on you further than to entreat — and I
have never importuned you — may I now without wounding your good-
ness — entreat you to act in my favor in obtaining the station of Naval
Officer in the place of M r Clarke deceased. My wife and her four
daughters look with melancholy anxiety to my visit here — a failure
would leave us utterly destitute. With that station, $2500 a year, I
could occupy my leisure in finishing three or four works that must
perish, if I should be abandoned now.
With the utmost affection and respect
Your friend & Ser*
W M Duane
To Jefferson.
Phil a 8 Nov* 1824
Respected and dear Sir, — That condition of humanity which
supersedes all law is the apology which I offer for trespassing upon (you)
again. I took the liberty of writing to you from Washington a few
weeks ago, soliciting your good offices with the President in my behalf
for an appointment to the vacant station of Naval Officer at this post.
The President is returned to the Seat of Government and the appli-
cations are very numerous, not less than fourteen, and interests are put
in motion which I fear may prove too powerful for me, who during
twenty six years made the public interest my sole concern and sacrific-
ing all considerations, danger of life for five years of the first struggle —
and devotion to public principles and public utility with an earnestness
that contemplated its own good only in that of the public.
I need not speak of these things because you have constantly rendered
justice to me, even when you could not suspect I should ever hear of
the kindness with which you spoke. But on an occasion which is so
every way serious to me as the only prospect which presents itself to
rescue me, my wife, and four young females from absolute want — I am
sure you will excuse me for iterating the circumstances on which I
solicit your interference.
The President had repeatedly declared, as I was informed by the late
Manuel Torres of Columbia, that "no man who had risen since the
Revolution, had rendered such effective services as Col Duane " — yet
his situation is no doubt a difficult one ; and if what I have done for the
384 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
public were not such as would place me before any man who is an
applicant on principles of justice I should have contented myself with
placing my name before him.
I believe that my services in the critical period of the war (which I
believe you will remember I long foresaw to be inevitable,) were of
much greater moment to the Country than I have ever had justice
done me in any acknowledgment. Yet it is a fact that by the sacri-
fices and labors which I then rendered, the knowledge of Military
Affairs were more effectually and rapidly diffused thro' this nation
than has ever occurred in a like space of time in any other nation yet
— and it is not to complain — because this is not the time if I were
disposed — yet I suffered even the honor which I earned, and the loss
of all my expenditures and labors to be torn from me, without uttering
a public murmur — - tho' the measure towards me was a shocking act of
injustice and injury — while the public was actually injured by the
measures pursued to injure me — I was sacrificed to an intrigue in the
army and the combined influence of those who while they professed to
be the friends of the men in power never forgave me the part I took
in producing the change. Having produced a revolution in military
discipline — and my works being adopted by the Government, had this
combination not succeeded those works would have afforded to my
children a handsome income. Under the course I experienced, I was
literally ruined — but I suffered in silence.
I need not draw any inference — but it is in the President's power
to cure all my evils past and future — There is not a candidate opposed
to me who has not a respectable income. Capt. W. Jones who is the
principal opponent has $2500 a year as President of an Insurance
Company — and he has not a child to depend on him. He has held
many offices of high trust — but when my life was daily exposed almost
alone, he was not to be found in our ranks.
Major Jackson who held the station before, and whose conduct and
merits have not bettered since, has his wife's fortune.
My Wife's fortune was sunk in the public cause — and she remains
with four daughters a melancholy example of virtuous generosity and
voluntary sacrifice. I am always
Your obed 1 Ser 1
W m DUANE
To William Lee.
18 Nov 1824
My dear Lee, — The state in which I am placed must be my
apology for not answering your two last before this time. My poor
Wife driven by insupportable affliction has been confined to her bed for
a week — and my poor girls appear sinking under the force of those
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 385
distresses which hitherto I have endeavored to confine to my own
breast, but which now overcome me and them. This day I endeavored
to borrow some money to lengthen out this state of misery which anxiety
and hopelessness barely tolerates — My son being absent in the interior
since his return from Washington — I could obtain — only ^ th of a
Dollar! ! In such a state of affliction — I endeavored nevertheless to
find the pamphlet you mentioned — but I have not been successful ;
There has been a great wreck of books and booksellers for several
years, and it was mentioned to me, that some money and industry had
been perceptibly employed in buying up the political productions of
several years back ; I examined several of the second hand book stores,
but could not find any publications of that description, tho' I was
anxious to procure what was wanted by D r Cutting if possible — My
state of mind and feeling is such that I am incapable of any effort of
memory — and am much more disposed to go to sleep — and sleep for
ever, than to dig up recollections which at every step would only bring
me to compare what I have done and what I am suffering.
It would have been more magnanimous and charitable in the Presi-
dent to have said to me or told some one to tell me, he set no value
•upon my former services — that my sacrifices were not entitled to
thanks — that he would not give me any public employment — than to
leave me in this state of uncertainty and wretchedness — Had he'done
so, I might have had a newspaper that was tendered to me, at a season
too when I was not so much broken down in my family and feelings as
I now am, and to which after all, with all my detestation of the pursuit,
I fear I must resort under circumstances less propitious — I dread it,
because I write upon the heat of the mind, and when my heart throbs
with agony and resentment and sense of injury I apprehend because 1
cannot control honest and indignant truth — I cannot simulate and
hence anticipate — what I should do and how I should direct discussion
if once embarked.
I have not been out of doors for the last week, but when I went out
to borrow — and know nothing of what is going on —
My son returned on Monday — -as he went — and as I anticipated —
in fact I have given up all hope. Since Tho s Jefferson's recommenda-
tion proves to be disregarded. You say that you have hopes yet — But
you must know that if there was an earnest desire or intention to
confer the office on me he would at once do it, and that he is in the
habit of making appointments without any consultation — and that
if he wished to do it he could do it without the least interference or
inconvenience.
If it should happen as you say you expect in what refers to yourself
— you need not have said a word on that subject to me as my mind is
not indifferent to your generous efforts for my good — I am not liable
49
386 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
to be so much cast down as I am now — but it is not for my individual
self I suffer.
Yrs ever W D
To Jefferson}
Philadelphia, 20 June, 1826
Respected Sir, — I do myself the satisfaction of sending a copy of
my book. I think I should hardly have ventured to put it forth had
not your opinion on the matter of a letter addressed to Col. Randolph
induced me, instead of continuing to write him as I had proposed to
do, put it into the form of a book. I cannot anticipate whether it is
well or ill done, or whether it is dull or interesting. I think that
Sterne's idea of the temper with which a man goes to see a play, is
equally good in going to see real life. I have endeavored not to tread
in other men's tracks, and to relate honestly what I saw or knew to
be true. The book is 132 pages larger than I had proposed to make
it, yet eleven chapters written are still omitted ; and I could make
another volume, as I proposed treating more circumstantially of the
government, the congress, their monstrous jurisprudence, their desire as
well as the absolute necessity of a federative, instead of a central govern-
ment, their money, their lands, the remnants of Spanish abuses, and
despotic immorality, smuggling, the Isthmus of Panama, you will see
in my preface that I have made propositions to affect that long talked
of Strait of Panama. The house of Goldsmidt, principally he who
lately died, was to be my back, along with a House at Rotterdam
and another house at London. The public men, excepting Pedro
Gual, Sec* of State, and Soublette, Secy of War, are not men of busi-
ness as business is done with us. They are, however, compared with
the Spaniards prodigious men. Restrepo of the Interior is just such a
man as you would like, enlightened, learned without the least pedantry,
liberal to your whole measure, and above the common passions which
despotism is apt to nourish and to create. The Sec ry of the Treasury,
Castillo, is a rhetorician, and there they want a man of faculty the
most. He asked my opinion on the best mode of finance, and he was
surprised when I told him " make roads, and leave systems till you have
something to make systems of. " But he was determined to have a
system, and thus far, the search of system has left them without
revenue, and 40,000,000 in debt. The real war debt did not amount
to 10,000,000$ — it was ascertained when I was at Bogota. They
have a passionate desire to imitate the U S. — only where some habit
has rendered it convenient not to follow it too closely. The trial by
jury and the freedom of the press they adore — if you believe them,
i Jeff. MSS.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 387
but are utterly uninformed of the spirit and nature of the former as
well as of the latter. I witnessed some very curious transactions in
relation to both.
You will see that I have found a plant (Erica) which Humboldt and
other naturalists say is not to be found in the new world.
The ideas of Humboldt on the native tribes I cannot concur in any
more than D* Robertson's, who identifies them from Greenland to
Patagonia. I found them cheerful amiable, laborious, hardy, carrying
heavy burdens such as a London Porter would growl under : there are
some of the race with long jaw bones and large nostrils ; but the races
generally are oval faced and in symmetry of structure equal to the
Circassians, male and female. They abhor drunkenness. The only
man I saw drunk in the country was a mulatto at a place called
E-nimawn [?]
Excuse this hasty note.
Most affectionately yours.
To Joseph Watson. 1
24 July, 1827
Dr Sir, — The cistern and pump for Schuylkill water on the west
side of Sixth opposite Powell Street, are in a state which requires the
attention of the proper authorities. In the severe frosts and thaws of
February last, the neighborhood who drew water from that pump daily
teazed me, supposing that as a magistrate I had power to cause the
evil to be corrected.
I addressed a note to Clerk, which was not even taken out of the
Post office, and I waited myself on Mr. Rush ; and Mr. Ramage who
owns property applied also in consequence of representations made to
him —
The pavement contiguous to this pump is bad, unequal and small
stagnant pools remain which filtre into the cistern, and renders the
Schuylkill water foul and fetid — the neighborhood is composed of poor
people who have neither property nor servants ; and it appears to me
that the use of such water is likely to produce disease.
The cistern was opened three or four days ago and several buckets
of filth, more like the feculence of a necessary, were thrown out, the
filth was such that the labourer was under the necessity of carrying the
bucket to another pump to wash it.
I am thus particular that the absolute necessity of attention to the
case may be seen.
It appears to me that the filthy state of the Cistern requires an
entire new one — and that in order to prevent the drains of the foul
1 Mayor of Philadelphia. Duane was at this time an alderman.
388 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SC-CIETY. [May,
gutters into the cistern the pavement should be so repaired as that no
pools as at present may remain.
I am Sir, with Great Respect
Your obed Ser* W M Duane
No 160 S. Sixth Street Corner of Elizabeth S.
To John Henry Eaton.
Phil a 25* h Jan. 1830.
Dr Sir, — It was not my intention to trouble you with my notions
on the concurrent preparations for events in Canada and elsewhere,
conceiving that the mere outline of opinions urged are of themselves
sufficient at least to induce a coustant and careful use of eye and ear in
relation to the topics themselves. The speech of Col. Benton on the
13 th inst. has, however, afforded matter to strengthen my preexisting
opinions, but recalled to my mind an annecdote which I will give you
at once verbatim from a note made at the time I received it from Mr
Torres the then minister of Columbia; I find that in the hurry I did
not date it, a neglect not very usual with me, however the events give
their own date.
The negociations for the acquisition of Florida were conducted on
our part by J. Q. Adams, who tho' aided by all the Documentary mat-
ter collected by Mr Jefferson in the Department committed a variety
of blunders — if not worse. The Spanish negociator had not enough of
confidence in his own knowledge to discuss the subject to his own satis-
faction, and consulted the French minister Hyde de Neufville, who
became the supplean of the sick Spaniard. In the progress of the dis-
cussion the supplean affected much ignorance, tho' it is well known he
was possessed of the ample Documents of the celebrated Count de
Vergennes on Louisiana and Florida, and the best existing maps of
those regions. The question of navigating the Mississippi was intro-
duced gently at first, and finally the supplean affecting great indifference
requested Mr Adams himself to describe on the map how far the navi-
gation would be admitted. Mr Adams drew a line commencing at the
debouch of the Mississippi and ascending upwards was to embrace the
mouth of the Arkansas, of course comprehending the Red River ; De
Neufville expressed a cold sort of satisfaction and the treaty thus formed
was signed by the two negociators.
Having gained his point De Neufville hastened to the Spanish
minister, and exulted explicitly in having accomplished the object and
duping the American negociator The Spanish minister suddenly
recovered his health and called on President Monroe, pressing him to
complete it by his signature. The treaty had not yet been presented
for signature but it was called for, and Mr. Monroe on its perusal
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE.
absolutely refused to sign it — and is said to have expressed himself
with bitter indignation that the point of all others upon which he was
most proud of having effected, that of nationalizing the Mississippi, was
here thro' ignorance, indifference, or design abandoned, and an attempt
made to afford the British access under the Spanish flag to our interior
& western regions — notifying explicitly his determination not to sign
the treaty ; and indicating that Mr Adams had been the dupe of
Neufville. The question went off for a year ; and the public clamor
about Florida became excessive. Overtures for reconsidering the pro-
ject were made by Mr Adams, but the Spanish minister would not
consent unless some equivalent was given for the abandonment of the
navigation. The negociation was renewed, and the surrender of Texas
between Rio del Nord & the Sabine was the price of Mr Adams'
What d'ye call it!
When the Spanish minister Andiagua succeeded Vives, he repeatedly
pressed Mr Adams to complete the Treaty by a survey establishing
the exact boundary, the Spanish commissioners having arrived and
being ready to proceed, Mr Adams wrote him that the matter did not
depend on the executive but on Congress before whom all the requisite
Documents had been laid, but had not legislated upon it.
Andiagua replied by letter that the Sec y was mistaken for Congress
had not only legislated on it, but had made an express appropriation
the preceding session. After several weeks Mr A returned an answer
acknowledging his mistaking and making promises to appoint Commis-
sioners soon — Andiagua after waiting some months wrote Mr Adams
that having no answer for so long a time, and the Spanish commissioners
being here at great expence, they found it their duty to return home —
and they were gone.
If a, just history were written of the transactions from the first settle-
ments on the coasts of N. England, it would furnish a picture not very
well adapted to command respect or serve for a model of social virtue.
In a brief way it may be truly said that the narrow clannish spirit had
more influence and individual aggrandizement, more incitement in pro-
ducing the revolt, than nobler virtues ; the leading men saw themselves
but a sort of fourth or fifth rate kind of characters as Colonials and
anticipated that power which during the revolution and down to 1800
they exercised with the mercenary spirit of merchants and the malignity
of the sacerdotal tribe. Mr Jefferson in one of his letters hits them off
admirably. Like men who abused power and were expelled, they hate
their adversaries ; and all who are not with them are considered adver-
saries ; they sought to retard the march of population with a view only
to their local power — and as they cannot prevent they seek to retard.
The motion of Mr Foot is in the spirit of the system and tho' it fails it
serves the malcontent purpose of exciting jealousy and discontent east
390 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
of the Hudson — and it serves to generate a temper adapted to favor
the design which I have dwelt on — a union of N. Eng. with Canada,
where the Eastern men might ride rough-shod over the Canadians as
they did till 1800 over the Southrons.
Do not suppose that I consider any open measures proper or required
to counteract those designs — I only say they should be watched —
treated like truant children — and without giving way to their malig-
nant passions overcome with a kindness such as they would merit if
their views were more large and generous. But that the design is
nourished in silence I have no doubt whatever. They feel mortified
not to have a head in a department, perhaps it would have been politic
to have had one ; but as it has turned out they have been taught that
the government can be conducted without them, and that is a sad
demonstration to them. Webster and such men are wounded, they felt
like men converted into pigmies and their rivals Giants. I had in my
mind to say something new, simple, and important on the subject of
Banking — but it would not suit the department of money affairs.
And I intended to suggest the importance of adding to the topographi-
cal Department a lithographic department or apparatus ; it would be-
not only useful beyond calculation but economical ; it would like a
similar establishment in the English war office be competent to the
uses of all the other Departments. The Topographic Institution I
am partial to, it is a child of my own, I begun it uncouuselled, unordered
and unpaid — and if I had no other consolation on earth the blessings it
has conferred and must confer on the country would compensate all the
adverse circumstances of my life. I believe I have tired you, and shall
not bore you again unless you should ask my opinions on any matter
my experience may have made me acquainted with. Respects to your
good lady &
Accept my most sincere wishes
W m DUANE
Addressed : " Private General Eaton."
Endorsed : " Wm. Duane to Gen. Jackson 25th Jan. 1830. History of Florida
Treaty as derived from Torres, minister from Columbia."
[From the Andrew Jackson MSS.]
To Templeman.
Phil a 25 May 1832
D R Sir, — The pamphlet of Judge Clayton in answer to Mr
M'Duffie, which you proposed taking out of a volume of pamphlets,
is not I perceive in the parcel of pamphlets which you tied up for me ;
you will oblige me by placing it in the hands of R. C. Weightman for
me and you may place Marsden's History of Sumatra with it, and he
will pay you for me.
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 391
I have two sets of Mirabeau's Monarchie Prussienne or Memoirs of
the House of Brandenburg, one of the Sets in Octavo with a curious
and beautiful Atlas. The quarto is in 4 large volumes blue paper —
the Octavo in 8 vols bound ; the atlas to each is the same folio ; both in
French.
I would exchange these, that is either set, for other approved books.
I have also the Posthumous Works of Frederick II of Prussia, trans-
lated into English by Thos Holcroft, in 13 vols, octavo neatly bound
in calf, which I would sell or exchange and I have about 250 vols,
folio, quarto and octavo of Military Books, many of them rare and
exquisite, such as the Campaigns of Leuxembourg, containing more
than 200 topographical plates exhibiting the plans of campaign battles,
routes and marches embracing the whole of the Netherlands.
There are also several quarto, with plates as Puysegur, Monticuculi,
Conde, Turenne, and others.
I have also Jomini's Military Memoirs in French published before
his desertion to the coalesced powers, and three of the four Volumes
translated into English, as I stopt translating upon his desertion. The
books are now more valuable as he has lately published a new edition,
from which he has excluded all his acknowledgments to the Genius of
Napoleon.
I would sell all these or exchange them for approved books and at a
very reasonable rate.
Do not omit to place Judge Clayton's pamphlet & Marsden in Mr
Weightman's hands — and you '1 oblige
Your obed Ser*
W M DUANE
Endorsed : "Col. Wm. Duane, Editor of the Philadelphia ' Aurora,' Author of
the ' Continuation of Gifford's History of France.' "
Circular.
Philadelphia, November, 1884.
Sir, — The object of this letter is an appeal to the good sense of the
Republican men of this Union : In exigencies we are energetic —
the moment we have triumphed we decline into confidence, imagine
that every thing is accomplished, and that we shall have peace and
quiet forever. These errors might be demonstrated by repeated in-
stances in our short history. It is not the business of this paper to do
so ; but to invite to a consideration of the evils with which the country
is menaced now by the undisguised and audacious corruption of the
United States Bank.
In 1826, the undersigned, habitually accustomed to mark the floods
and fluxes of opinion and action in free States, attempted to enter
upon the arena and repeat the part he had acted in the memorable
392 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
struggle for political life or death from 1797 to 1800. The public
mind was not in advance of events with me. I foresaw the struggle
that was about to be renewed. The people, reposing on their own pros-
perity, either did not reflect, or did not duly regard the appeal then
made to them — and the attempt then made to revive the Aurora was
a failure : — not from want of principle in the people — not from a
want of devotion to free institutions; — but they felt too confident of
their power whenever it should become necessary to exert it.
But out of this too confident repose have grown enormous evils.
The tranquillity of the people has been mistaken for debasement and
servility ; the mercenary spirit has been active, while the free spirit has
been tolerant and unsuspicious ; and it was not until a vice, generated
by the inexperienced application of the powers of government in the
infancy of our institutions, became so enormous as to render uncom-
mon energies of wisdom and courage, and disinterested devotion,
necessary to arrest the devastation which it menaced, that the people
have been awakened.
Anticipating this crisis long, I had endeavored to act through the
existing presses, and sought to call attention to the danger which
menaced the country. It is not said in malevolence, but in truth, that
the apathy of society at large had lured the existing presses into a
belief that the people had become indifferent to that freedom without
which all things cease to be precious or become ridiculous, I could find
no channel through which to speak to the country. Failing there, I
resolved to throw myself once more upon the public arena, and as in
1798 without solicitation — but upon the naked merits of the under-
taking to attempt once more to meet and aid in arresting the inroads
upon the sacred liberties of the country.
The first Number of the Aurora, revived, was issued in July, and
29 Numbers have been issued since — of the quality of the publication,
and its probable utility, it is not for the Editor to speak. But it
becomes me in the same spirit which inspired the undertaking to
speak to the friends of freedom with candor, frankness, and unreserve.
— The subscription has not fulfilled the expectations nor the purposes
of the Editor.
In this city, the centre of Bank influence and power, where the
Aurora, in 1798, had seventeen hundred subscribers, in 1834, it has
not three hundred and fifty ! This contrast may be accounted for by
very obvious causes — some innocent, some the contrary. In 1798,
the Aurora stood alone — the Democratic papers in Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and New York, were prostrated by the imprisonment and
ruin of the editors ; and iu the case of Boston by the death of the
Editor of the Boston Chronicle. There was then no rivalship where
ruin was to be the reward of fidelity to the public. Worldly prudence
1906.] LETTERS OF WILLIAM DUANE. 393
now governs where money has not been directly interposed, and a sort
of tacit compromise has taken place between the enemies of the press
and some of the professed advocates of liberty. These interests go
hand in hand with others less notorious, but holding much influence ;
and for a scanty portion of advertising favor, a sort of passivity of the
press is accomplished, without the odium but with the fetters of a
bribe.
It will be, therefore, perceived that a press which proclaims an
honest war against all compromises and declares an interminable and
inextinguishable hostility to the Bank — must be opposed by the Bank,
and by all who expect discounts, or to rise to office or influence by
sinister means.
These are the causes which explain the scanty subscription of the
Aurora, in 1834 ; and it also explains by what fatuity there has been
drawn off by Bank credits, a sufficient number of Democratic votes to
give this beautiful and celebrated city up to a corruption that rivals
that of the city of the Sybarites.
It would be tiresome to describe the many artifices, of the most
unworthy, indeed, the most contemptible kind, which have been re-
sorted to, to arrest the success of the Aurora, among which, it is pain-
ful — though it is too true not to be revealed — to discover the hands
of false friends. In such a case, the manly course is to be open,
explicit, and above board. The Aurora must not depend upon a
corrupt city, but upon an honest country. The city interests are
selfish and contracted — those of the country are large and diffusive ;
and it must depend on the country whether the Aurora shall continue
to maintain those broad principles of freedom, prosperity, and knowl-
edge which obtained for it, in former times, so much applause, and
in this day so many testimonies of a generous remembrance.
The subscription has not been adequate to enable me to fulfil my inten-
tions, expressed in my prospectus ; and those who have subscribed, in
too many instances, have not fulfilled the obligation which they entered
into, of paying in advance, without which it was manifest from my fair
avowals, it was impossible I could go on.
Here, then, is the case which has called forth this unreserved appeal ;
and I shall now as candidly state what I deem necessary to be
understood by every man who values the freedom of the press.
The combinations formed by disappointed and ambitious men in the
South, the West, and the East, have concentrated their several kinds
of hostility with that paper power, to which a false policy has given the
force of law. The hatred and discord of the triumvirate, like that of
other triumvirates known in history, have been merged in the Bank ;
seeking the reestablishment of that all corrupting instrument, they
silence their several pretensions, resolved first to create general distrac-
394 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May,
tion, and then to contend for that domination against each other, of
which they have already shown themselves utterly unworthy.
This focus of faction legally ceases on the 4th of March, 1836, only
thirteen months after the next meeting of Congress. The business of
these combined powers, in the intermediate time, will be to promote
public distraction, extravagance, and discontent, not so much from the
expectation of overcoming the decided sentence of the public upon the
Bank, in the election just closed, as to prepare such a state of disorder
and distraction between the period of the natural death of the Bank,
and the retirement of Andrew Jackson from the station which he
has so much honored and merited, as may afford them an occasion to
set the will of the majority at defiance, as in 1824.
The actual contest is for every thing that is sacred, as it was in 1798;
the means of gaining public power by contempt for the people, and
disregard of constitutional laws, are the same ; and we have in addition
the introduction of secret armaments during an Election, and open
murder in the very streets of our city. Such a combination, and such
practices, must be met with the spirit which they provoke ; but unless
the centinels of the people be decided as well as faithful — the con-
sequences may be more easily imagined than described.
This is the ground I stand upon — and it remains with the country,
which is neither contaminated by the Bank nor debauched by a servil-
ity to ambitious men, always fatal to republics, to say whether the
Aurora shall continue its career, or sink under the influence of the want
of energy and disinterestedness in the people, and the greater activity
and influence of the political arts which now govern and disgrace the
press and threaten the destruction of every vestige of public liberty.
As I am habitually unreserved, I say at once that the subscription
to the Aurora should be augmented at least 400 to enable me to go on ;
500 would be preferable, if it were 5000 I should apply it — not to my
own use — for a man of 75 has few wants and no motives of ambition
beyond the consolations of the past.
Forty gentlemen, who would agree to obtain ten subscribers each —
or eighty, or even five or ten in detached districts, who should under-
take to obtain five each, would realize the efficacy of the division of
labor, and serve themselves and their country.
If there be such men in the country, and that there are I know, but
know not how to reach them, the object could be accomplished and the
friends of freedom have the guarantee of forty years' consistency and
rectitude for the fulfilment of the engagements which the undertaking
was based upon.
William Duane.
1906.] REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT. 395
JUNE MEETING, 1906.
The stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 14th instant,
at three o'clock, p. M. ; the President in the chair. The record
of the last previous meeting was read and approved ; and the
Librarian, the Corresponding Secretary, and the Cabinet-
Keeper submitted their customary reports. Among the gifts
were an impression in bronze of a medal ordered by Congress
to be engraved to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary
of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, received from the American
Philosophical Society, and a fine mezzotint portrait of David
Steuart Erskine, eleventh Earl of Bucham, the friend of Wash-
ington, and a Corresponding Member of the Society. This en-
graving, which was given by Mrs. William B. Rogers, is from
a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, published in 1765, and sent
to James Otis, with an autograph inscription " as a mark of
my attachment to the cause of Liberty and its friends."
Hon. George Sheldon, of Deerfleld, was elected a Resident
Member; and Hon. Beekman Winthrop, Governor of Porto
Rico, was elected a Corresponding Member.
Voted, That the stated meetings for July, August, and Sep-
tember be omitted, the President and Recording Secretary to
have authority to call a special meeting if necessary.
Mr. Nathaniel Paine communicated the memoir of the
Hon. Stephen Salisbury which he had been appointed to
prepare for publication in the Proceedings.
A new serial, comprising the record of the March and April
meetings, was ready for delivery at this meeting.
The President in announcing the death of Hon. Carl Schurz
spoke as follows : —
Since the last meeting of the Society a vacancy has occurred
in our roll of Honorary Members. Hon. Carl Schurz, whose
name stood second on the list, died at his residence in New
396 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [June,
York on the morning of Monday, May 14, in his seventy-eighth
year.
Mr. Schurz was elected at the December meeting of 1887.
Under the system then in use the honorary roll numbered
eighteen names and the corresponding sixty-two, or, in all,
twenty more names than is permissible under the rule in force
since 1895. George Bancroft was the senior honorary member,
and of the eighteen then composing the full list only David
Masson, chosen in 1871, now survives. Although Mr. Schurz
was prominent in political life, a member of the United States
Senate from 1869 to 1875, and of the Cabinet of President Hayes
from 1877 to 1881, his Life of Henry Clay, in the American
Statesmen series, published in 1887, constitutes his only con-
siderable contribution to historical literature. In recognition
of it, he was made an Honorary Member of our Society.
Later, in 1892, he wrote a brief and popular, but very admir-
able appreciation of President Lincoln, which, first appearing
in the Atlantic Monthly for June ? 1891, has since, as an in-
dependent monograph, passed through no less than twenty-
eight editions. It is, however, suggestive of the radical
change in the composition of our honorary roll introduced in
1901 x that Mr. Schurz, not specially identified with histori-
cal work, was chosen in succession to the Hon. Elihu B.
Washburne, of Illinois, 2 then recently dead, whose name is in
no way whatever associated with either historical work or
literature. Mr. Washburne was elected in 1882, on general
considerations only ; Mr. Schurz in 1887, in recognition of his
eminence both political and literary and because of his recently
published Life of Clay. But Mr. Schurz belonged more nearly
in the class of William M. Evarts, whose name preceded his
on our roll until the death of Mr. Evarts in 1901, than in
the class of Mr. Washburne. Under the regulations in use
since 1901 the name of no one of the three, however eminent
and otherwise representative, would have been found in a
roll now, and with fitness, composed exclusively of those
representing "supreme accomplishment in the historical
field." 3
I have known Mr. Schurz well for over thirty years ; and,
sympathizing warmly with his political views and attitude, I
1 2 Proceedings, vol. xv. pp. 51-54.
2 Ibid., vol. iv. p. 37. 3 Ibid., vol. xv. p. 54.
1906.] TRIBUTES TO HON. CARL SCHURZ. 397
have had exceptional opportunity to judge of him, his ideals
and his accomplishment. He was essentially a man of refine-
ment, — a gentleman. He had a natural aptitude for what
was best and most elevating, — art, music, literature. A
linguist and a scholar, in society he bore himself easily as one
to the manner born ; his private and domestic life was irre-
proachable. High-toned, he was manly, courageous, cheerful.
Defeat and disaster did not embitter him ; and, during one
period, he rose superior when financial pressure, physical in-
jury, political ostracism and domestic bereavement all seemed
to combine to rain affliction on him. Under such conditions
with the average man the baser and human elements reveal
themselves ; he is apt to become morose, harsh in his judg-
ments, seclusive. It was not so with Mr. Schurz. By
nature resilient, he bore straight on, awaiting the better time.
Thus, altogether, it has been my fortune to know few men
more admirable, very few whose society was so elevating.
To associate with him on terms of equality was distinctly
educational.
In the course of a long life of exceptional variety he
played many parts. In his youth, a student, a patriot, a revo-
lutionist and an exile, he later became a reformer in a strange
land, a journalist, speaker and publicist. Then a diplomat ; he
next appeared in the army, a general in high and active com-
mand. Afterwards he shone in politics as a parliamentarian
and an administrator. In every field he entered he acquitted
himself with more than credit ; in some, supremely well. A
writer of singular force, as a public man he was actuated by
the loftiest standards both moral and philosophical. A gen-
eral, he did his duty well and bravely ; as an administrator, he
lacked only time in which to enable him to leave a deep mark
upon our governmental methods. But, a publicist and a par-
liamentarian, he was a politician with statesmanlike instincts.
Referring first and briefly to his historical work, his Life of
Henry Clay, necessarily popular in form and treatment, is,
from the literary point of view, one of the best works of its
kind ever produced in America. Having a sympathetic
affinity with Mr. Clay, Mr. Schurz's single term in the Senate
gave him an insight into the conditions under which Clay
worked and accomplished his results, thus affording his biog-
rapher a true insight into his subject. He wrote not from
398 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [June,
the outside, but from the inside. While the book cannot be
classed among the great biographies in the language, it is
none the less singularly illuminating ; and, so far as I am
advised, by far the best, as most artistic, portrait in existence
of one of the most distinctively American of all our large
public characters. Mr. Schurz's Autobiography, prepared
daring the closing years of his life, is now passing through the
press. It has, however, thus far appeared only in a popular
magazine and in mangled form, and it will be necessary to wait
until it is published as a book before passing judgment upon
it. There can however be little doubt that it will prove a pic-
turesque and valuable contribution of original matter pertain-
ing to one of the most interesting of our American historical
periods.
Of Mr. Schurz's connection with this Society there is little
to say. An Honorary Member for over eighteen years, he has
been present, so far as I am aware, once only. While a guest
at my house, he attended the meeting of November, 1903, and
contributed a hastily prepared characterization of the historian
Mommsen.
But it is as a politician, a publicist and a parliamentarian
that I wish to offer my impressions and estimate of Mr. Schurz.
In those capacities I place him high ; in fact, speaking in
measured terms, I do not know of any American I should
place above him. His career in the Senate was limited to one
term, six years only. With that single exception he never, so
far as I am advised, belonged to any legislative body. Yet in
the Senate he almost at once took foremost rank ; and I
question if any man who ever sat in that body, in the course
of one single term not ushered in by distinguished service in
the lower House of Congress, gained a greater reputation, or
secured a firmer hold on what must be described as the ear of
the country. Mr. Schurz's term chanced, it will be remem-
bered, during a very trying period, —it included the entire first
administration of President Grant and one congressional term
of his second administration. Entering the Senate as a Re-
publican from the half confederate State of Missouri, Mr.
Schurz soon found himself forced into an independent atti-
tude. As a Senator he was laborious, conscientious, high-toned
and faithful to his ideals ; foremost in debate, he consistently
voiced during a trying period a statesmanlike policy.
1906.] TRIBUTES TO HON. CARL SCHURZ. 399
I find a curious bit of contemporaneous evidence of this, my
own high estimate, in the diary of my father under date of
January 12, 1875. Those closing years of Mr. Adams's active
life were in no way cheerful ; acutely sensible of his own
declining powers, he was despondent as to the future, while,
as is apt to be the case with men so circumstanced, his esti-
mate of those then prominent in public life was low. Sad-
dened himself, he, as a rule, saw little to admire. That day,
however, he wrote the following brief record in his diary : —
" Went to the office after reading a report of the speech of
Mr. Schurz in the Senate on the Sheridan outrage. It is very
seldom I am envious of anybody, but I should like to have
something on the record which must stand permanent like
that. I could not help sitting down, and writing a note sig-
nifying my opinion. I could not have expressed my own
convictions more fully, not to speak of the style, which is the
more remarkable that he is a German." It was a case of
approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley. Mr. Schurz, I know,
so regarded it ; for, more than twenty years afterwards, I one
day mentioned to him having come across this diary entry,
and he at once recalled the language of the note referred to.
But I find no copy of it in my father's letter-book. Perhaps
it may find a place in Mr. Schurz's forthcoming volumes.
To my mind, it is a defect, and a very lamentable defect, in
our American political machinery that a man of Mr. Schurz's
purity, independence- and intellectual equipment cannot be
kept in public life unless, subservient to party, he also acts
in harmony with the majority in the particular State or dis-
trict in which he may reside. In Great Britain, for instance,
the House of Lords affords a convenient retiring-place for emi-
nent Englishmen when weary of the struggle of the Commons
or when thrown out of official position. In the House of
Commons a prominent member may find a constituency, or
have one found for him, anywhere. Indeed, from Burke to
Gladstone and Balfour the names of eminent Englishmen at
once suggest themselves, — great parliamentary characters,
who have, at one time or another in the course of their
careers, been thrown out by constituencies with which they
had identified themselves, and forced to find seats elsewhere.
How Mr. Burke was defeated at the polls in Bristol, and how
Mr. Gladstone was forced to find some constituency of a
400 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [June,
different character from that of Oxford, is ancient history.
But Lord Palmerston perhaps affords the most striking illus-
tration and contrast. Lord Palmerston was in Parliament
over half a century. Representing four constituencies, he
sat for Cambridge University from 1811 to 1830, when he lost
his seat because of his advocacy of parliamentary reform.
Finding immediately another seat, he lost it under the Reform
Act. Returned next for South Hampshire, two years later
the South Hampshire electors rejected him. A year without
a seat, he then (1835) settled down on Tiverton, a safe little
borough from which he could securely count on getting him-
self returned ; and from it he was returned to the day of his
death. Thus in 1834 Palmerston was thrown out of par-
liamentary life as was Schurz in 1875 : but Palmerston found
a seat a year later, and in due time became twice prime
minister; the retirement of Schurz was final. For him the
avenue to the Senate chamber was closed. Could it have
been otherwise, — could it have been with Mr. Schurz as it
was with Palmerston, — it may sound, I am aware, like an
exaggeration, but I do not hesitate to say that, judging
by what he accomplished in his single senatorial term, he
would have left behind him a reputation second to almost
no English-speaking parliamentarian. With qualifications of
the highest order he had a natural aptitude for parlia-
mentary work, as well as love for it. He was at home in
debate, — in his element. As a parliamentarian of the first
class, he was vastly superior to either Calhoun or Clay ; for
there were veins of philosophy, humor and imagination run-
ning through his utterances conspicuously absent from the
speeches of either of the two last named. It cannot, of
course, be claimed for Carl Schurz that he had the richness
of imagery or the exuberant splendor of diction which char-
acterized Edmund Burke ; for in those respects Burke, like
Shakespeare, is a class by himself. Nevertheless, while Mr.
Schurz's language and illustration were more restrained than
those of Burke, they were nearly perfect. Though he did not
have the great Irishman's faculty of coining philosophical
phrases, I fail to recall any one in my time through whose
parliamentary utterances there ran such a vein of sound
thought, and of presentation at once scholarlike and taking.
His rhetoric, for instance, unlike that of Mr. Sumner, was
1906.]
TRIBUTES TO HON. CARL SCHURZ. 401
never open to the charge of being turgid ; and though his
ideals were different, they were not less high and far more
human.
Reflecting on such a possibility lost, it is sad, as well as
provoking, to think of the waste of ability and statesmanlike
thought incident to the practical working of our American
political organization. As I have said, to hold his place in
the councils of the nation, not only must a public man to-day
be in close accord with a political party, and what is known as
its " machine," but that political party must, moreover, not
only be in a majority, but remain in the majority, in the
particular district or State in which the individual resides.
Thrown out of public position, he ceases to be a political
factor. He may, it is true, like Mr. Schurz, — and Mr.
Schurz is a shining example, — still hold the ear of the coun-
try, and from time to time in his political canvasses deliver
before large audiences speeches which affect results. Never-
theless, his position and influence are manifestly less than
those of a member of Parliament, or a public man holding a
seat in the Senate of the United States. He is, so to speak,
a political outcast. He can affect public opinion ; but, except
in a remote and inconsiderable degree, he cannot influence
governmental or parliamentary action. Mr. Schurz left office
on the 5th of March, 1881, twenty-five years before his death.
His whole official life was concentrated in a short ten years,
six in the Senate and four in the Cabinet ; yet there never
was a day, during the whole twenty-five years following the
termination of his official life, and up to his death, when there
was not in the United States a large constituency which would
have gladly combined to place him and keep him in Congress
as its representative, provided our political machinery had
made it possible so to do. But his constituency, though large
and devoted, was necessarily scattered. There is no life
chamber in our system, and the State and district lines make
concentration impossible.
That any remedy for this defect in our political machinery
can ever be found and brought into play is most improbable.
Nevertheless, Mr. Schurz affords a striking object lesson of a
political need. Our present system tends very directly to par-
tisanship and. the commonplace through the exclusion from
public life of men of strong individuality and independent
51
402 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [June.
character; and this exclusion must continue and increase just
so long as the constituencies are localized, and made to depend
on geographical limits instead of community of opinion.
Mr. Charles E. Norton, having been called on, spoke ex-
temporaneously, in part as follows : —
Mr. President, — My acquaintance with Mr. Schurztroa&io^
long standing, was cordial and friendly, but it was«f<a®mfct
intimate. Twenty-four years ago he came to Cambridge to
deliver the Phi Beta Keppa oration, and staying with me then
for two or three days, I had the opportunity of learning how
delightful he was in social relations, how wide was the range
of his intellectual interests, how varied his culture and his
gifts. I had had some slight acquaintance with him for many
years previously, but it was now that I came to know him in
such wise as to gain the measure of his large nature.
His career touches the imagination. That a man born and
bred in the Old World, with inheritances, associations, and
circumstances essentially different from those prevailing here,
should, after reaching manhood, come to America and so com-
pletely understand and sympathize with the new conditions,
should make himself so perfectly one of her own children that
if we were to choose among our contemporary fellow-citizens
the half dozen who best represented the ideal American he
would incontestably be one of them, is a fact without parallel
in the records of that immigration of eminent men who have
contributed so greatly in various directions to the service of
our country. Mr. Gallatin is the only other instance that I
now recall of a man of foreign birth coming in early manhood
to take up his home with us, reaching high political distinction,
and rendering great political service to the land. But even
his service is not comparable to that which during the fifty
years of his American citizenship Mr. Schurz rendered to the
land of his adoption.
His clear, receptive, and well-trained intelligence was united
with entire moral integrity, and this union formed the basis of
the character which was conspicuous alike in his speech and
in his act. He had what is so often lacking in our public
men, — genuine moral independence. His intellectual honesty
would not permit him to hesitate in acting upon the conclu-
sions to which his convictions of right and wrong might lead
1906.] TKIBUTES TO HON. CARL SCHURZ. 403
him. This moral courage, in which he never failed, is the
true test of manhood, and the prerequisite of the highest
usefulness in public life.
In the Phi Beta Kappa oration to which I have referred, he
spoke of " an honorable character, well built up by honest
conduct and patriotic service." The words applied fitly to
himself. The address was mainly a plain and direct discus-
sion of the relations of education to a democratic commu-
nity. There was no attempt in it at oratorical display, but it
was a serious appeal to thoughtful men, dealing mainly with
familiar ideas, but presenting them with new force and illus-
tration. The most original part of the address was toward its
close, where he said, " The tone, the habits, the tastes, the
pleasures, and in a large measure the morals, of society depend
upon its culture.' , " I use the word ' culture,' " he added,
" as signifying not merely the training of the mental faculties
by which useful knowledge is acquired, but also the knowl-
edge, appreciation, and enjoyment of the beautiful in nature,
literature, and art, and of the noble, elevated, and refined in
sentiment and in feeling." This culture Mr. Schurz possessed
in large measure, and, in combination with his simplicity, his
cordiality, his frank and open bearing, and the sweetness of
his whole nature, it gave to intercourse with him an uncommon
charm.
I leave to others to speak of his public career. It is to the
high-minded, interesting man in private life that I would bear
testimony. His is a great figure now, and it will lose nothing
of its greatness as the years go on.
Mr. Moorfield Storey read the following tribute : —
Mr. President and Gentlemen, — After the just and discrim-
inating words to which we have listened I may well hesitate to
address you, but I cannot remain absolutely silent when the
opportunity is given to speak of Carl Schurz ; for of all the men
that I have known there is not one whom I have admired and
respected more entirely, nor one to whom I have turned more
constantly for guidance and inspiration.
It is nearly forty years since as a young man I first met Mr.
Schurz, who was then just entering the Senate, but my real ac-
quaintance with him began some ten or twelve years later
when the Civil Service Reform League was organized. From
404 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [June,
that time until his death, at the meetings of that association
and its committees, in the campaign of 1884 and the national
campaigns which followed it, in connection with the inde-
pendent movements that have been initiated during the last
twenty years, and finally in the opposition to Philippine con-
quest and the policies which are known as imperial, I was in
frequent touch with him. I met him in his home and he was
my guest, and through this intercourse I learned to know him,
to confide in him, to lean on him, I may almost say, to love
him.
In him were combined rare qualities of head and heart, and
he lacked no attribute of real greatness. His native intel-
lectual power was remarkable, and it was developed and
strengthened by thorough education and by very varied experi-
ence of life. His judgment was calm and singularly sane. No
man of his time thought more clearly on political questions or
grasped with more unerring accuracy the vital points of a dis-
cussion. He was a great orator, but his strength lay in his
power of statement, his faculty of apt illustration, in his trans-
parent sincerity rather than in rhetorical ornament. There are
passages in his speeches which have great beauty, like that in
his eulogy of Charles Sumner which presents Sumner's argu-
ment against placing the names of battles fought in our Civil
War upon the flags of our regiments, but no man within my
experience could equal him in marshalling his facts and driving
his conclusion home by lucid and convincing argument. He
was a master of language, and his great resources were always
at command, for he was as quick-witted as he was clear-headed.
Very few have combined such readiness in debate with such
power of sustained speech. Whether we consider his prepared
addresses, or his contributions to the running discussions of the
Senate, Mr. Schurz must rank among the ablest debaters and
the most persuasive orators that this country has known.
There was one quality of his speech which should not be
overlooked. He addressed always the conscience and the in-
telligence of his hearers ; he spoke to the best that was in them.
He never descended to clap-trap or fustian, nor invoked a
motive that was base or sordid. His appeal was to principle,
not to prejudice or partisanship. To quote his own words,
he believed that " a large majority of the American people
throughout honestly and earnestly mean to do right; and also
1906.] TRIBUTES TO HON. CARL SCHURZ. 405
that, the wildest temporary excitements notwithstanding, they
work as earnestly to satisfy themselves as to what is right, and
therefore welcome serious arguments and appeals to the high-
est order of motives.' 1
In this faith he spoke, and as Lincoln stands above and apart
from Douglas to one who reads the famous joint debate be-
tween them, so Schurz stands above the men whom he
encountered in discussion, whether on the platform or in
the Senate.
But more important than powerful intellect or eloquent
tongue was the high character, the lofty moral purpose which
governed his life. His was the " moral supremacy " which, in
the words of Lowell, " is the only supremacy which leaves
monuments and not ruins behind it." His creed was expressed
by himself in words which I like to quote :
" Ideals are like stars. You will not succeed in touching
them with your hands. But, like the sea-faring man in the
deserts of water, you choose them as your guides, and follow-
ing them you reach your destiny."
To this belief Mr. Schurz was ever loyal. His allegiance was
to the truth everywhere and always. Those who maintained
the right were his friends, those who opposed it were his adver-
saries. To him party was an organization of citizens united to
secure definite political objects, not an army enlisted to win and
retain power. He thought it useful while it remained true to
its purpose, a delusion and a snare when it was perverted to
personal uses or bad ends. He refused to approve the de-
lusive motto " Our country right or wrong " unless it was in-
terpreted to mean "when it is right to be kept right and when
it is wrong to be set right," and was therefore little likely
against his country to follow his party right or wrong.
Nor did he ever stoop to the doctrine that one must support
an evil policy or a bad man at his party's bidding in order to
retain position and influence in its councils. He would not
stultify himself by advocating wrong, whether proposed by his
political associates or their opponents. Thus he criticised Mr.
Lincoln, whom he heartily respected, during the Civil War,
and did not hesitate to antagonize General Grant at the height
of his power and to tell the truth about his acts, however un-
palatable. He left the Republican party to oppose Grant's re-
election. He returned to resist within that party the forces
406 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [June,
which rallied behind Mr. Blaine. He supported Mr. Hayes as
its candidate, and in his cabinet did much to make his adminis-
tration successful, but when Mr. Blaine was nominated he
led most brilliantly the campaign for Mr. Cleveland. The
same purpose animated him in each case. He opposed Blaine
for the same reasons which led him to oppose Grant. His con-
victions never changed, and he followed them, not any group
of politicians.
Born when the tide of freedom was rising all over the world,
he adopted the ideals of the American Revolution and the faith
of Lincoln in his early youth. In the cause of liberty he
ventured his life and accepted exile from his native land. He
believed in the right of men to govern themselves, he agreed
with the prime minister of England that " good government
cannot take the place of self-government," and to the faith of
his youth he was true to the end. As he espoused the cause
of the slave when he first became an American, so in his age he
strove for the rights of the Filipinos, true in each case to the
fundamental principles of American liberty. Detraction and
abuse were showered upon him by those whom his attitude of-
fended, but every party was glad to welcome his powerful aid.
His course drove him from public employment, for which he
was so peculiarly fitted ; but even when he might have received
high office from Mr. Cleveland, he urged his associate " Mug-
wumps " ' not to accept preferment, lest the purity of their
motives in resisting Mr. Blaine might be questioned and their
just influence for good be thereby weakened. Both riches and
high office were within his easy reach, but neither tempted him
to forsake the path of public duty.
As I look back upon his career, it is the absolutely consistent
course of a high-hearted man, devoted to his country and al-
ways forgetful of himself, who during more than half a century
was true to his ideals and gave his great powers to advance
the truth, untempted by hope of preferment and undaunted by
fear of obloquy or loss.
His nature was singularly simple, serene, frank, and af-
fectionate. He was free even " from the last infirmity of noble
minds." He claimed nothing for himself, nor was he jealous
of others, but rejoiced in their success. Like Sumner, he had
as white a soul as is given to man. In his company one felt
that he was breathing a pure air. While literature, music, and
1906.] TRIBUTES TO HON. CARL SCHURZ. 407
every subject with which a cultivated man is naturally con-
cerned found a place in his thoughts and his talk about them
was always delightful, the things which interested him most
were the grave affairs of government, and in discussing them he
lifted the conversation to a plane where personal bitterness
and sordid considerations found no place. He dealt with
policies, — with ideas rather than with persons, and while he
saw the evildoer clearly and was ready to resist him, his
judgment was not clouded by personal bitterness. He hated
the wrong and not the man.
In peace and in war he served his country well, and when we
remember all that he did in the contest against slavery with
voice, pen, and sword, — in shaping the policy of reconstruction
and preserving the results of the Civil War, in the efforts to
root out corruption wherever it showed its head, in the struggle
for civil service reform and for honest money, — when in a
word we remember that he was faithful to every good cause
from youth to age and then look in vain for any alloy of sordid
aim or selfish thought, we need not fear that any praise of ours
will do him more than justice. He was a Bayard of true De-
mocracy, a knight without fear and without reproach. True-
hearted, brave, pure, unselfish, and ever faithful to his high aims,
we have known no nobler man than Carl Schurz,
Mr. Bliss Perry sa 
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